Wild Occurrences
by Sixteen Candl3s
Summary: Pan uses Bulma's time-machine in the hopes of mending her broken heart. She doesn't intend to travel to an alternate universe, where she meets an alternate Trunks. What's a girl to do when the man she's falling for isn't a part of her universe?
1. Wake Up Call

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

--

**Summary:** After being rejected by Trunks, Pan uses a prototype time machine to go to the past, but something goes wrong and she ends up in an alternate present, where she meets a man who looks a lot like Trunks...

* * *

**Chapter 1:** **Wake Up Call**

There was another party at the Briefs' household. In Pan's eyes, it seemed like Bulma loved to have parties for anything and everything; this one was for the new technological advancement that she had created and although she had handed the company down to her son long ago, she still worked in the labs on a daily basis. The new advancement happened to be a prototype time-traveling-machine and to Pan, the whole thing sounded ridiculous, but she was far from the genius that the Briefs woman was.

Bra was the same way as her mother when it came to parties and although Pan had never been as image-conscious as the average girl, she had grown distant from her tomboy-ish ways in the last three years and had even consented to letting the older girl dress her up. Since Bra was her best friend, she knew the _real_ reason for Pan's easy defeat—it was to catch the attention of a certain dense lavender-haired Demi-Saiyan.

Gazing at all of the people who seemed to be having a good time through the Briefs' window, Pan let out a sigh full of longing, her feet haphazardly swinging back and forth from her position on the Briefs' tree branch, **Maybe I was wrong to let Bra dress me up. I still feel out of place at these parties and nothing has really changed. Everyone still treats me like I'm five-years old and even though Bra's only a year older than me,**** she gets treated with much ****more maturity!**

Feeling her frustration mounting by the second, she dug her fingernails into the tree's bark and felt the wood splintering underneath the pressure of her fingers.

Closing her eyes for just a moment, a deep sigh slid from her lungs, **I will **_**not**_** give in to these silly, little tears because that would be weak of me. These tears would just justify my immaturity.**

Inside her mind, she could hear Vegeta's merciless laughter.

She was brought out of her musings when she heard a voice that she had fallen in love with long ago, "Hey, Panny! What are you doing up there?"

For a moment, Pan stopped breathing as she immediately recognized the deep, rich voice. Looking down, she could see the familiar mop of _his _lavender hair and _his _wide grin that made everything feminine inside of her go all soft and moist.

"No–nothing," she squeaked out, flushing dully.

**Smooth. **_**Real smooth**_**, Pan**, her conscience mocked. **This is why people treat you like a child.**

"Leave her alone, Trunksie," a giggling voice said, coming from Trunks' left. "She's having fun up there. Right, sweetie?"

_**Sweetie?!**_** Is she _serious_? **Pan inwardly seethed, her eyes narrowing into slits when the fake blonde poked Trunks in the stomach; he seemed to laugh along with her.

**A new girlfriend?** She wondered and then scoffed a moment later, **It's not like it makes a difference. They all come and go.**

Jumping down from the tree in one single leap, Pan landed with cat-like reflexes on the ground.

"You're right," she spat venomously to the woman in front of her. "I _was_ having fun."

Using her taller height to glare at the busty blonde, she grinned maliciously, "But, _we_ could have fun too."

**What's happening to me? Why am I acting this way?** She thought, unable to understand the intensity and animalistic hunger stirring within her.

**It's jealousy, little girl**, her mind answered in a warm purr. **It's filling your insides, entangling with your emotions and dominating them.** **You're protecting what's _yours_.**

Pan decided then that she would _not_ listen to that insidious voice and bit down on her tongue hard.

However, she had caught that—**Protecting what's mine?**_** Mine?**_** Trunks doesn't **_**belong**_** to me.**

But, for all that she'd suppressed any immediate rash action, she still felt that _need_ to kill the clingy, annoying, little _creature_ on the spot.

Looking at the arm linked in Trunks', Pan's eyes narrowed angrily and she growled, **I'm **_**growling**_**? Where did **_**that**_** come from?**

However, she acknowledged that the growl matched her current emotions and without another thought, she formed a small ki ball in her hand. She could smell the fear radiating off of the blonde and couldn't help but smirk, relishing the power that she held over the female.

"_Pan!_ _What_ are you _doing_?" Trunks roared in horror, his eyes growing wide with shock.

"I'll give you exactly ten seconds to leave," Pan said, ignoring Trunks' question as she shot her ki blast at a tree standing nearby; it immediately exploded upon impact.

"Who the _hell_ are you?" The woman screamed.

"10, 9, 8, 7," Pan began counting down nonchalantly as another ki ball formed in her palm.

The woman screamed with fear and ran; Pan inwardly smirked.

"No, wait!" Trunks called after the busty blonde, but when he realized that she wasn't coming back, he immediately turned his attention back to Pan.

**He's furious**, she thought, allowing the ki ball that she was currently holding to dissipate into her palm.

"What was that for?" He shouted angrily.

Inwardly flinching at his tone of voice, she could tell at that exact moment that he was on the brink of going Super Saiyan.

"I didn't like her," she answered with a small shrug, beginning to walk away from him and towards the party being held inside Capsule Corporation.

"Oh, so you were going to kill her _just_ because you didn't _like_ her? That makes sense! That sounds like something _father_ would do," Trunks' voice was dripping with venom.

Pan rolled her eyes, turned around to meet his gaze head-on and crossed her arms over her chest, "What part of _I didn't like her_ aren't you getting?"

**x-X-x**

Vegeta watched the scene below him with mild curiosity, whereas Gohan looked on apprehensively. They had immediately—and appreciatively for the Saiyan no Ouji—left the party upon feeling two ki's fluctuate greatly.

Vegeta's eyes narrowed as he studied Trunks' body language with a single-minded intensity that would have made him feel twitchy and damp with perspiration had he realized he was under his father's scrutiny, **He's about to do something stupid. Damn it, boy, haven't I taught you anything?**

**x-X-x**

"I'm sorry, Panny. I must have heard you wrong. Did you just say that _you_ didn't like her?" Trunks asked dubiously.

When she nodded warily, Trunks laughed humorlessly, "Oh, this is rich. You didn't like her. Well, you know what, Pan, I don't_ care_ if _you_ like her or not. _I_ like her!"

He inhaled slowly, then exhaled loudly, "What do you know anyway? You're just a kid."

He raked his hands through his short hair, oblivious to the pained expression that crossed Pan's face.

"What do _I _know?" She echoed, her voice filled with emotion as she watched Trunks walk away from her.

"_I know plenty!_" She was shaking now, her dark eyes blazing in a face that was white with a mixture of rage and desperation. **Like the fact that I**_** love **_**you, Trunks Vegeta Briefs! Even if you **_**are**_** an ass...**

"Don't worry, Panny," Trunks smiled over his shoulder. "I'm not mad at you anymore. I'm sorry I exploded."

**x-X-x**

Vegeta snorted at his son's stupidity, waiting for something _big_ to happen; he could _feel _the tension sizzling in the air.

Gohan, on the other hand, frowned as he watched Trunks leave. He had always known that his daughter had a crush on Vegeta's son and while he didn't like it, he honestly believed that this was for the best, even though he _knew_ that his little girl was hurting.

**x-X-x**

Pan was so consumed in her emotions that she could barely see her surroundings, ******Trunks–he–he openly_ rejected_ my_ feelings_ for him. He'll _never_ feel the same way I do because he still sees me as a child. Oh, God, it hurts. Why does it hurt so much?**

"I am _not_ a child!" She shouted angrily, feeling her ki rise; her trademark red aura was now flickering gold.

Inside Capsule Corporation, the lights had gone out.

"Don't worry, everyone," Bulma soothed, trying to comfort the distressed people at her party.

"I'm sure the lights will be back on again at any moment now!" She shouted amongst the noise and while she could see everyone silently agree, she didn't notice the disappearance of the Z-Senshi.

"What the hell!" Yamcha murmured, barely able to stand anymore of the skyrocketing ki.

"It's coming from Pan!" Krillin screamed in horror, pointing to the girl whose eyes were white with fury.

"Look!" Goten—who seemingly appeared out of nowhere—shouted, pointing to Vegeta and Gohan.

The rest of the Senshi made their way over to the two silent warriors as Pan let out another agonizing scream of pain, trying to release the hurt that she was feeling inside; she was waiting for a numbing release, but she found that couldn't quite reach it. She was oblivious to the siding that was peeling off of Capsule Corporation and the people trying to reach out for her—she was oblivious to it all because she just wanted to give in to the consuming rage.

And that was when _it _happened—_it_ was then that Pan finally became _The Legendary_. With an explosion of light, the Senshi shielded their eyes as her energy metamorphosed into a more concentrated form and flowed around her like a wild flame. Her golden hair shimmered with the effects of her energy and stuck out all over the place, defying Chikyuu's laws of gravity. Her eyes were a strange shade of blue and her dress had torn from where her muscles had expanded, leaving the bust line to look incredibly indecent.

"Wow," Yamcha murmured, being the first person to openly gape at her body.

Being the protective people that they were, Gohan and Goten growled in sync and smacked Yamcha on the back of his head. Vegeta snorted, but was nonetheless intrigued, seeing as this was the _first_ Super Saiyan _female_ he had ever seen; Pan was the first to reach legendary status. Goten and Gohan, on the other hand, were frightened to approach her because they knew how dangerous the first transformation was; Trunks just openly stared.

Pan, on the other hand, felt giddy, **_I did it._ I'm the_ first_ female to ever become a Super Saiyan, even though dad said it was quite impossible due to my lack of Saiyan blood.**

She felt the Saiyan in her coursing throughout her veins, aching for a battle, but she suppressed the feeling as she looked around to assess the damage she had caused, **It's not **_**too **_**bad or** **at least, nothing that the infamously wealthy Briefs can't have cleared or fixed.**

"What is she doing?" Yamcha whispered to an entranced Trunks.

"I–I don't know," Trunks replied, his voice wavering slightly; he didn't take his eyes off of Pan for a second.

"We'd better just _watch_," Yamcha whispered; Trunks nodded absently.

Pan knew exactly what she had to do. Flying to the laboratorial end of Capsule Corporation, she ignored the eyes upon her body.

Entering the laboratory, she saw that all of the workers had attended the party and she couldn't help but smirk, **This is going to be too easy. I almost feel bad.**

She flickered on the light switch and looked about a little until she stopped upon recognition, **There it is; the prototype.**

Approaching the prototype, Pan smashed the glass encasing the machine and shattered it effortlessly. An alarm went off overhead, but she ignored it.

Stepping into the cockpit, her brows furrowed together confusedly, "I guess I should just... push some buttons."

She silently marveled at how her voice had gotten deeper and as if on cue, the machine hummed to life; Pan only knew that she had to leave...

**I have to go to a place where they can't find me and where Trunks can't hurt me. **

Bulma heard the alarms going off in the laboratory and rushed to the scene.

What she saw before her stopped her dead in her tracks, **A Super Saiyan Pan is hijacking my time machine?**

She blinked until she came to her senses.

"Wait!" Bulma shouted to Pan as the machine hummed with life

"It's not fully tested yet! It's just a prototype, Pan!" Bulma screamed, running to the machine.

With a whirl of color and light, Pan was gone and Bulma sank to her knees with one thought whirling around in her mind, **Just where exactly did Pan go?**

* * *

**A/N:** This story was _originally_ written by MintlytheBADgoddess, who let Burenda adopt it, but since they were both unable to complete this story, I decided to adopt it because there are so many places where I can take this story. To answer any or all of your questions; yes, Burenda has let me adopt her story, something you can't consider stealing. Any more questions...? Good!


	2. Beautiful Disaster

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition**(s);**_

1. Kami: God.

2. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 2:** **Beautiful Disaster **

It had been a long, dry day. Luckily for him, the sun was rapidly setting over the horizon, which meant that the heat would diminish as the stars began to make their appearances. In all of his luck, Radditz just happened to be on outer palace duty on—what seemed to be—the hottest day of Vegeta-sei. He sighed tiredly and wiped the forming sweat off of his brow. Something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye and turning to his left, he had to shield his sensitive vision when a strange whirlpool of light came from the middle of nowhere.

"What the hell!" The long-haired guard exclaimed, before he was thrust back violently against the palace walls by a powerful explosion of light and energy.

And then all was silent. Rubbing the back of his head, Radditz blinked a few times to try to shake off the dizziness he felt. His Saiyan eyes re-adjusted quickly and he stood up to investigate what had knocked him over.

"What was that?" He muttered, taken by surprise.

Standing up, he gaped openly when he saw an unconscious female lying on the ground. The strangest part about her was the large, odd machine lying next to her unmoving form. The machine sported symbols on the side that Radditz couldn't quite recognize, but knew he could probably look them up in his father's lab. Turning his dark eyes back to the girl, he saw no immediate danger and decided to walk over to where she lay. Dry, red dirt made crunching sounds under his boots with each cautious step he took. Surprisingly enough, her hair was _not_ spiked. Instead, it was straight and reminded him of a silk dress that the Queen had once wore.

He snorted with annoyance, **This is what caused me to fall? This–this _child_?!**

His eyes moved back to her hair, **Well, at least I know that she has the traditional Saiyan hair color, discounting the blood that's matted into it.**

Turning the girl over with the heel of his boot, he winced when he saw blood gushing from a cut on top of her head.

**This is nothing that the regeneration tank couldn't handle**, Radditz deduced, looking to his left and then to his right, before lifting Pan into his arms.

He was rewarded with groans of protest as he did so. With his lack of medical knowledge, he guessed that she had a few broken bones and from the feel of things, a disjointed socket in her right shoulder.

**That should be the most serious of her injuries**, he decided.

"Where did you come from, little one?" He said to no one in particular as he carried her down the corridors.

He forced himself to ignore the looks he received from his fellow soldiers—most being of a higher status than him—as he carried the girl in his arms down to the science wing. He growled and shot them heated glares, telling them without words to back off; this worked out all the way back to his father's lab, where he quickly punched in the access number and opened a series of digital locks.

His father's lab was located in the science wing and with it, came a small room that Radditz used for the sake of sleeping. When he _wasn't_ on guard duty or on a planet assignment, he worked with his father—a well-known technological and strategical genius—in the labs.

Transferring his thoughts back to the female in his arms, he gently placed her on his bed. He didn't even notice how he didn't mind that the sheets—_his_ sheets—were soaked with blood. From memory, he turned on the regeneration tank. Only Royalty had access to the regeneration tank, but seeing as how his father had worked on the creation of the very machine, he had been granted access to it. The machine hummed with life as he lifted the lid off and pulled out the oxygen mask, preparing it for use.

Turning back to the girl lying on his bed, he came to the uncomfortable conclusion that he would have to undress her himself. Feeling on edge, like he was nothing more than a guest in his own room, he focused his gaze on her face as he pulled off her dress, her undergarments soon following suit. Lifting her into his arms, the seven-foot guard sucked in a sharp breath, ignoring the way she immediately molded herself into his body. Feeling like her mere presence was stepping on his toes, he quickly submerged her into the warm, blue-healing fluid, thanking Kami for helping him with the difficult task. He pushed a few buttons on the machine and the lid automatically sealed shut.

"See, that wasn't so bad," he said aloud, letting out a small sigh.

The previous questions he had earlier were _still _present, **How did she get here? _Who_ exactly is she? And more importantly, _why_ is she here?**

He knew that he would have to report of his little finding soon and he frowned when he realized that he couldn't report it to the King since he was on a diplomatic mission with his son, Trunks, so he figured that the Queen would have to do for now. With an inward shake of his head, he decided that he could at least answer a few of the questions that plagued his brain. Taking off one of the blood-stained gloves he wore, he held it tightly in his other hand as he exited the room and walked into his father's lab.

**x-X-x**

Pan had been drifting in and out of consciousness for the past ten minutes. It seemed as though she was being thrown in and out of the two worlds; never staying in one for too long. Her head hurt like hell and she still couldn't distinguish where she was. Suddenly, a loud, high-pitched beeping noise became audible.

Blinking a few times, all she could see was... _blue? _Abruptly, the beeping ended and the humming that had been present for what seemed like hours finally stopped. Furrowing her brows in confusion, she tried to figure out how to get out of the strange prison.

**Well, at least I'm not claustrophobic**, she thought with a wry grin.

However, she _was_ widely known for her lack of patience and she was about to break out of the confining shell when she saw two figures on the other side of the glass.

"Hey! Let me out of here!" She cried, or at least tried to when she realized that a mask was preventing her from doing so.

Feeling panic welling within her throat, she tried to think rationally, **What the–? What if the two figures on the other side of this prison put me here because they want to hurt me?**

Similar questions rang throughout her mind and she slowly began to realize that there was only one thing she could do...

**x-X-x**

Coming back from his father's lab, Radditz had a blinding headache fueled by more questions that he had no answers to and the company that had decided to join him on the trek back to his room. While he had originally hoped that the girl he had found had somehow gotten lost in space and ended up on Vegeta-sei by accident, it turned out that she was part Chikyuu–jin and part Saiyan. Although most of her genetic make-up was Chikyuu–jin, the Saiyan blood in her veins dominated the Chikyuu half, which meant that she was a Demi-Saiyan.

**This is ridiculous**, he inwardly brooded.

Romei—a fellow technician and mechanical genius—followed him back to his room, his movements eager upon learning that there was another Demi-Saiyan who wasn't related to the King or Queen.

"So, what are we going to do with her?" Romei asked with a cheeky grin.

"_We?_ I see no _we_ in this matter. It seems to me there is only a _me_. _I_ found her," he snorted, wondering why he sounded so possessive.

Both men were oblivious to the beeping noise coming from the regeneration tank in the background.

"Come on! You have got to be a little curious about this girl. I mean, according to _your_ story, she just popped in from the middle of nowhere. How exactly did you explain _that_ when you reported it to Vegeta-sama?" Romei coaxed, genuinely curious.

Radditz lowered his eyes at the mention of Vegeta's name.

With wide eyes, Romei waved his hands frantically at the burly scientist, "You haven't reported this yet?! What the hell were you thinking, Radditz?"

"Shut up, you idiot!" Radditz pushed Romei's hands away from his face, stress and shock making him snappy. "Have you forgotten that the King is on a diplomatic mission with his son, Prince Trunks? Furthermore, I just found this girl. I haven't had the _time_ to report this to the Qu—"

Interrupting the not–so–light conversation, a blast of light and energy _whoosh–ed_ from the regeneration tank, creating a loud explosion; tritani—an alloy and healing fluid—was all over the small room. Romei and Radditz watched with wide eyes as Pan floated over what was left of the regeneration tank.

She blinked at the men in front of her. Both were adorned in armor similar to the one Vegeta usually wore and she responded automatically to that, quickly grounding herself and taking a fighting stance. She expected them to do the same, but all they did was gape at her.

**That's strange. Didn't they put me in that weird prison?** She thought, cocking her head to the side.** Maybe they're intimidated by the fact that I broke out and that's why they're not doing anything.**

The taller one with the strange eye-piece looked like a worthy opponent, but she had learned long ago that looks could be deceiving when it came to battle; she was immediately reminded of Vegeta in this situation. Looking at the two men with confusion written all over her features, she cocked her head to the other side, trying to relieve her tense muscles. It was only until she felt their eyes burning brands onto her skin that she noticed her attire, or lack thereof.

Pan's eyes widened and she blushed to the roots of her hair as she tried to cover herself with her arms, not realizing that her attempts at covering herself only served to emphasize certain parts of her body. Looking to her left and then to her right, she spotted a nearby door and ran into the room, slamming the door shut firmly behind her. At the same time, Romei's eyes were bulging, his nose was bleeding heavily and he was feeling more than a little lightheaded; he guessed it was probably from the blood loss.

"Wow!" Romei swallowed thickly. "Did you _smell_ that?"

Radditz snorted dryly, but even as he did so, he began to tug at the lower half of his spandex, half-aroused and completely ashamed for looking at a child like that, though he wasn't sure if he was trying to banish the arousal or prolong it.

"She's nearing season," he stated with an air of indifference.

Romei gaped at his unmated friend; his mouth opened and closed quite a few times.

"Are you telling me that she did _not_ smell like the best thing you've _ever_ smelt? _Ever_?!" Romei was almost yelling at him.

"She smelled good, Romei. _The end!_" Radditz closed the discussion with a low growl.

Romei opened his mouth to protest some more, but then he lowered his eyes, saw the state that Radditz was in and smirked.

Before he could comment, though, Pan yelled from the other side of the door that she had disappeared through, "Good, because you're never _smelling_ me again!"

Radditz could immediately tell that she was infuriated and with a smirk, he waltzed over to the door, his tail swinging behind him in amusement; he attempted to turn the handle, but the door wouldn't budge. He knew that the door sported no lock, so the resistance was clearly from her simply pulling on the handle.

The smirk on his face grew, "You're going to have to come out of the closet sometime."

"_No, I don't_!" Pan shrieked defiantly.

Radditz had to suppress his laughter, **I don't think a blush that deep will _ever _fade away.** **I mean, sure I was _beyond_ shocked to see her body in its most _natural _form without clothes, but the opposite sex hasn't been as appealing after the death of my mate.**

He growled for show and banged on the door, "I don't have time for this, girl."

"I am _not_ a little girl," Pan stated calmly, even though she was inwardly seething.

"She sure isn't," Pan heard a whistle and a loud yelp of pain coming from the other side of the door.

Looking around the small room for something to wear, all she saw was spandex and armor. Grabbing the clothing, she proceeded to put it on, not minding how snugly it fit.

"All right, have it your way! We'll talk through the damn door!" Radditz sighed in defeat.

"Okay, I guess," Pan said, finally consenting.

"Name?" Radditz asked, deciding to stick to simple questions.

"Pan Son. What's yours?" Pan asked curiously.

"Radditz. Who are your parents?"

"Gohan and Videl Son," Pan said, her eyes dwelling with tears at the thought of her parents.

**Is it their fault I'm not there anymore...? ... Of course not**, Pan reasoned, but wanted someone to blame it on.

"Both aren't Saiyan names—" Radditz accused, but Pan interrupted him with another question.

"Where are we?" She asked, knowing full well that she wasn't on Chikyuu anymore.

"Vegeta-sei," Radditz replied, rolling his eyes at her question.

Romei—who had remained silent during the questioning—shot Radditz a confused glance.

**How could she not know where she is? She arrived on her own to our knowledge**, Romei thought, suspicion kindling within his dark eyes.

There was a long pause on the other side of the door until Pan spoke again, "Wh–what?"

"Veg—" he started, but Pan quickly cut him off.

"I heard you the _first_ time. I just couldn't believe it!" She snapped.

Radditz and Romei shared another confused glance.

"How could this be? You're not supposed to be here!" She continued to rant. "This can't be happening. What about Chikyuu? What about mom and dad?"

She was now near hysteria, **Oh, no! It could be very possible that I don't even _exist _in this time.**

"Girl! Enough of your blabbering, I need to take you to Vegeta-sama right now!" Radditz roared.

****

Vegeta... Oh, Lord. Vegeta... **This is all too much for me to handle. Vegeta's a _King_? What is this? Some sort of hellish nightmare? **

As Pan continued to lose herself in her thoughts, Romei whispered to an annoyed Radditz, "Didn't you say that the King wasn't even here?"

"Yes, but _she_ doesn't know that," Radditz whispered back furiously. "What are you still doing here, Romei? Don't you have some work to get back to?"

With an annoyed huff, Romei began to walk out of the room and called over his shoulder, "Don't think that this is over, Radditz."

Waving him off, Radditz spoke in a louder tone of voice, "Get out of this closet right now, girl."

"No!" Pan cried, clutching the door handle tighter.

"Fine, but remember that you leave me no choice other than this one," Radditz sighed and began forming a small ki ball in his hand.

Putting his hand on the door, the metal of the handle heated up upon contact.

"Argh! Hot. Hot. _Hot_!" Pan cried, clutching her burned hand.

Radditz smirked, **That trick works _every_ time.**

He opened the door with ease and watched Pan cower a little as light flooded into the small closet.

"Uh... hello?" She offered, seemingly nervous.

Looking past the burly Saiyan in front of her, Pan discovered that the other Saiyan had already left.

"It's so nice of you to join me," Radditz stated with a cool smile.

Pan decided that his smile was intimidating as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

Letting out a small shriek, she wondered, **How the hell am I going to get myself out of this predicament _now_?**

* * *


	3. Just Persuasion

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

__

Definition**(s);**

1. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 3:** **Just Persuasion**

Pan's scowl grew as she was carried further down the hall over Radditz's back. She was still thinking of a way to escape when she noticed other Saiyan guards stop to look at her—some even whistled and laughed; she was sure to give them the iciest glare she could muster.

Growling lowly when she realized that she was left to look down at Radditz's backside indignantly, she began to beat her fists on his back, "Put me down, you giant ape!"

Chuckling lowly, Radditz ignored her request. Averting her eyes from glaring at the floor, she pouted until she saw _it_—_it_ was Radditz's tail.

**Should I?** Pan grinned wickedly when she caught sight of the furry appendage swinging with amusement.

As she grasped the tail and brought it to her face, she immediately felt Radditz stiffen and his walking cease. Nuzzling the tail and licking the underside of it, she drew the tip into her mouth and lightly sucked on it. Radditz let out a low groan and inadvertently felt his knees buckle as he fell to the floor in one swift movement.

Feeling deliciously naughty, she asked, "You're not looking so smug now, ape. What's the matter? Are you in _pain_?"

Her wicked grin never faltered, even as Radditz tried to splutter out a response. Feeling like it was as good a time as any to escape, Pan bit down on the furry appendage as hard as she could in one swift movement. For a moment, her eyes positively gleamed when Radditz let out a harsh scream of agony as he dropped even further to the ground, his palms supporting his weight.

**Does this make me a sadist?** Mulling over the thought for a moment longer than necessary, she shook her head. **_Nah._**

Realizing that he wasn't going to be going anywhere anytime soon, Pan knew that this was her opening to run. So, she took it.

****

x-X-x

Walking down one of the many halls in the palace, Romei was hoping to meet up with Pan and Radditz; Pan in particular since he wanted to make amends with her...

**... After the Queen orders Radditz what to do with her, of course**, he thought with a hopeful grin.

Hoping that Bulma wouldn't give a damn about Pan, Romei found himself wanting his Queen to assign the lithe Demi-Saiyan to either him or Radditz.

With a sickly grin, he thought, **I don't mind sharing. Sloppy seconds have always worked for me.**

From what he had seen so far, she didn't look dangerous at all...

**... After all, Chikyuu-jin's are widely known for their incredibly weak, but brilliant occupants. Even though**** the Queen is also a Demi-Saiyan, she's never shown any interest in fighting and getting stronger, so she needs to have the most**** loyal guards around her when Vegeta-sama isn't around**, Romei frowned thoughtfully.

Snapping out of his thoughts, he paused in mid-step when he heard a scream of agony coming from the hallway he was walking in. Not sure if he wanted to go down the specific corridor anymore, he was pondering what to do when something small and hard rammed into him and the force of impact had them both sliding down the hallway on his behind.

"What the–" he cut himself off upon seeing said female in his arms.

Grinning, he whispered a faint _thank-you_ towards the ceiling and averted his vision back to her, a predatory smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, "Hello, little one."

Recognition flashed through Pan's eyes when her eyes met his and she did something Romei wasn't expecting; she stood up and kicked him in the stomach with incredible force, mumbling a faint _bastard_ over her shoulder as she sped off once more.

Rubbing his hurt stomach, Romei frowned, **That's _not_ how I anticipated my next meeting with her and how did she manage to kick me so hard? I thought Chikyuu-jin's were weak.**

Slowly getting to his feet, he decided that someone in the other dimension hated him because he found himself being tripped over and sliding down the hall again.

****

x-X-x

"Get out of the way!" Radditz yelled, tripping over something in the hallway.

Releasing a loud grunt, he looked around to find what had caused his fall and his eyes fell on Romei's hunched form.

"Well, well, well, why am I not surprised?" He asked sarcastically. "Which way did she go, Romei?"

Unaccustomed to seeing Radditz so worked up, Romei swallowed hard and pointed in the direction that Pan had taken.

Thanking him, Radditz slowed to a brisk walk, realizing that Pan would be easy to find since her scent was so strong, **Foolish girl. You _will_ be mine.**

****

x-X-x

Looking around for some sort of escape route, Pan _knew_ that Radditz was hot on her trail.

"Damn it!" She cursed. "I should have never made that crack about him being an ape!"

She didn't even know _where_ she was anymore, **All of these hallways look _exactly_ the same!**

Turning to a door on her left, Pan quickly dashed in.

"Phew," she sighed, closing her eyes momentarily.

Leaning against the door, she wiped the forming sweat off of her brow, **That was close.**

"Who's that?" A deep voice asked, startling her.

Opening her eyes, Pan screamed in terror. There must have been thirty Saiyans in—what seemed to be—a training facility and she knew that she didn't have a chance to escape if she went back out into the hallway.

**Radditz was hot on my trail before and now, it will be impossible to outrun him**, Gulping, Pan lowered her ki as far as she could and ran for the nearest door—it turned out to be _another_ closet.

"You'd think they have enough closets around here," Pan muttered to herself, ignoring the curious looks she was receiving.

She tried to look for another exit, but found that it was too late because Radditz blasted the training facility door off of its metal hinges.

He looked angry, so Pan decided, **This is the safest place to be compared to standing out in the open.**

****

x-X-x

**She's here**, Radditz thought; he could smell Pan's scent—mingled with the smell of blood and sweat—the most clearest in this room.

"_Where is she?_" He roared to all of the third-class soldiers sparring.

All training ceased as all of the men in the room pointed to the door Pan had hid in.

"Thanks," he threw over his shoulder, sauntering over to the closet.

With a smug grin, he opened the door, "It's time for you to pay up, little girl."

Taken aback when he saw that the closet was empty, he blinked stupidly, **How can this be? Her scent is all over this room.**

Feeling his ki flare with rage, he slammed the door shut and stomped out of the training room, **My scouter couldn't even detect her ki. This is unbelievable. I lost her again!**

**x-X-x**

Pan did everything she could to stop from laughing as she crawled through the ventilation system. The look on Radditz's face was absolutely_ and_ wonderfully hilarious. Seeing him coming, she panicked until she noticed the vent at the top of the closet. She tried to pry it off, but it wouldn't budge. So, she did what any Saiyan would have done; she blasted the hell out of it!

Crawling on her hands and knees, Pan snickered to herself. **I can just imagine how angry he must've been when he left the training room.**

Yawning, she suddenly realized how tired and hungry she was. She crawled for a short while longer until her body could take no more.

"I guess I could take a nap," she muttered, lying down. "Besides, who'll find me in here?"

****

x-X-x

"Toma, Bra's only twenty years old. She has a full life ahead of her. She doesn't want to mate just yet," Bulma said sternly, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

**Now I understand why Bra hates this Saiyan elite; he's cocky_ and_ persistent**, she inwardly sighed.

"But, Queen Bulma—" Toma began to plead again.

Bulma immediately cut him off, "I'm feeling tired, Toma. Please tell the guards on your way out not to let anyone in if it's not of the utmost importance."

Toma didn't need a less subtle hint and was on his way, "Yes, of course, my Queen."

Glowering, he bowed and reluctantly left. Sighing, Bulma leaned back against the plush chair, feeling glad that Vegeta would finally be back in a few days for the tournament.

She let out a snort, **He wouldn't miss it for the world, even though technically, he isn't allowed to** **compete.**

Smiling wistfully, she thought about the tournament itself, **Every unmated female is going to participate. Even though**** the purpose of this tournament is to find the strongest mate for the future King of Vegeta-sei, Trunks doesn't seem to care for this rule. He doesn't even want to be tied down to anyone.**

Bulma's thoughts were interrupted when a scream came from above, **What the—There are no floors above the royal section. What's going on?**

****

x-X-x

Pan woke up in an immense amount of pain. The excruciating ache trailed down her vertebrae and pinpointed at the end of her spinal column. Releasing a scream of agony, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She wasn't sure if her small body could stand the pain as it came in more crashing waves.

Something in her wanted a release and she wasn't sure what it was. Her ki rose dramatically and her fists clenched until they were white. She knew she wouldn't be able to stand any more of the building pressure and that was when she felt _it_; the growth of a tail—a _Saiyan_ tail.

****

x-X-x

The ceiling was shaking violently and it left Bulma wondering what exactly was happening.

"Guards! Guards!" Her voice rose to a panicked pitch and the men outside of the throne room doors immediately entered.

"Yes, my Que—" the guard stopped speaking when he saw what was causing Bulma's distress.

"Holy shit! What is that?" The other one yelled.

Bulma would have rebuked him for using such vulgar language had she not been thinking the same thing. A large chunk of the ceiling fell near her.

"Your Highness!" The first guard called, his heart pounding wildly in his chest.

**If Vegeta-sama knew what was happening, he'd have my head**, the guard thought with a panicked expression.

Knowing that Bulma wouldn't be able to get out of the way in time, the guard—known as Garrot—leapt forward and pushed her out of the way. As he did so, a young woman fell through the ceiling. Her body was limp and lifeless, and Bulma had to shield her eyes from the dust of the plaster-like material as it billowed in the air.

"Are you all right, your Highness?" Garrot asked tentatively.

"My head hurts, but I'll be fine," Bulma sighed, getting to her feet.

She squinted, trying to see through the dust, "What is that?"

"I believe it is a Saiyan, your Highness," the other guard answered, making his way over to Pan.

Bulma gasped and quickly made her way over to Pan's unmoving figure.

"Stay back, my Queen," the guard commanded. "It may have been a failed assassination attempt on your life."

The guard scowled, **What a pathetic attempt to kill the Queen.**

"Nonsense!" Bulma cried. "If it were an assassination attempt, I guess I should feel insulted since it was a pretty poor assassin."

Clearing her throat, she waved her hand, "Turn_ it_ over."

Madrai, the other guard, quickly complied, turning Pan over with the heel of his boot.

**It's a female!** Bulma realized with surprise.

"Is she alive?" She asked gravely.

The guards averted their eyes away from her gaze, unable to answer.

There was a short silence and then one guard spoke, "I believe so, your Highness. I believe so..."

****

x-X-x

It must have been hours later when Pan woke up because she couldn't remember a thing. Rubbing her aching head, she noted that her vision was blurred.

"Ugh, where am I?" She asked, attempting to get up.

"Oh! You're awake," a familiar voice answered.

"Who are you?" Pan asked roughly.

Her vision was clearing rapidly and she could make out peach colored flesh tones and light aqua hair, "I am Princess Bra..."

* * *


	4. The Circle of Destiny

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition**(s);**_

1. Kami: God.

2. San: A title of respect.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

--

Special thanks goes out to _S'TarKan_ for being kind enough to let me borrow a couple of lines from his fic, Team 8. Go read his stories.

* * *

**Chapter 4:** **The Circle of Destiny**

When Trunks and Vegeta landed on Romula-sei, they were shown nothing but the utmost respect and servitude. After all, the Romula-jins had been their allies for quite some time. Although they were not a helpfully _strong_ race, they had their very own use in the war raging against the monstrous ruler Frieza; their alliance had triggered and encouraged the rebellion on planet Chikyuu.

Known for their legendary ability to resurrect the dead after a few hours of death, Vegeta had recognized their technique as something useful. Therefore, he had sided with the strange, blue species. Vegeta and Trunks were coaxed by King Farren, of the Romula-jins, to attend the great celebration in honor of their arrival and being good diplomats, the Saiyan duo _reluctantly_ agreed.

The festival hall was heavily embellished with bright colors and various ornaments of inter-galactic trade. Food and drinks were served and half-naked women danced for them. Music billowed throughout the halls and all was well until the festivities came to an end. King Farren claimed that they would do diplomatic traffic after his guests were rested and after their heads were clear.

As Trunks lay awake in bed that night, he found that he could not sleep, even though his body craved the release of slumber after the long day he had endured. Lost in his thoughts, his highly tuned senses did not recognize that there was an intruder in his room until he smelt the assassin's fear.

The pungent stench made him jump to his feet just as small ki blast was shot directly at him. Eyes dilated and ki flaring, he lunged at his attacker just as his father barged into his sleeping quarters.

Feeling his mouth curl in slight satisfaction when his ki blast rendered the masked assassin dead, Trunks turned towards his father, unable to comprehend how he knew that a masked alien had been attempting to kill him, "How did you know he was in here?"

"Another imbecile, like this one here, was in my quarters," Vegeta growled in disgust.

"I thought that this was supposed to be politics, not warfare," Trunks mused, ripping the clothed mask off of the assassin's face.

"They're one and the same, brat," Vegeta snorted.

Trunks' eyebrows rose in surprise and he quickly realized that he had _a lot_ to learn about politics.

**x-X-x**

Ignoring the nausea that threatened to spill from her mouth, Pan quickly sat up and let out a high-pitched screech, "_What are you doing here,_ _Bra?_"

Doing the math in her head, she figured, **If Bra was born, then there must be a Bulma, but that's quite impossible under these circumstances.**

Pan resisted the urge to rip her hair out of her head in frustration, **How did this happen?**

Feeling as though she were missing something, Bra frowned and decided to overlook the informality, "I am Vegeta-sei's Princess. Are you feeling all right, miss?"

Pan let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a strangled gasp, "I–I don't–uh, how old are you, Princess?"

As Bra answered Pan's question, she somehow managed to look angry and fearful at the same time, "In three weeks, I'll be twenty-one. Old enough to mate by my father's standards. Why do you ask?"

Pan managed a tight smile, "I–um, just curious."

Bra nodded, even as Pan inwardly cringed, **Oh, great.** **I'm not in the past,** **I'm in the present. It's just a _different_ present. I guess Bulma wasn't kidding when she said that more tests needed to be done on the prototype.**

Another thought struck her and she involuntarily shuddered, **Speaking of that damned machine, where is it? I forgot all about it after waking up in that strange prison.**

She inwardly began to panic, even though she managed to sustain a cool exterior, **What if it was destroyed? What will I do then? How will I ever get home?**

"What's wrong?" Bra asked, unable to shake the feeling that she somehow knew Pan. "If you tell me, I'm sure that I could get my mom to help."

"Wrong?" Pan gave Bra a strange look. "What are you _talking_ about? Nothing's _wrong_."

"Oh, _please_. Your tail's twitching," Bra answered with a quick roll of her eyes, as if she were explaining something to a child.

**Tail!** Pan thought, voicing her thoughts aloud. "_Tail?!_"

She stood up to confirm Bra's words, but immediately fell over, not used to the added weight.

"If my suspicions are correct, you'll be a little off-balanced for a few hours," a soft voice came from the lavish entranceway.

From her position on the floor, Pan could see Bulma leaning against the door-frame, "Bulma, ho–how is this _possible_?"

"I think I should be asking you the very same question. I tried to run a background check on you, but nothing came up when I entered your blood pattern into the main computer bank," a Vegeta-like smirk crossed Bulma's features.

"Could you imagine my astonishment when I realized that you actually passed through the extensive and thorough trait typing as a child? Only Demi-Saiyan's can do that and that's exactly what you are," Bulma's smile grew a little wider, even as Pan's face paled and Bra's jaw fell loose.

Laughing lightly, Bulma continued, "I know! And here I thought that Bra and Trunks were the only Saiyan Chikyuu-jin's to cross the universe."

Walking forward to help the fallen Saiyan off of the floor, Bulma helped her sit down on the guest bed.

"Don't worry, little Demi," Bulma assured warmly. "I won't turn your parents in to my mate. Actually, after we have this _little talk_, you're welcome to stay."

**Bulma i****s always the first person willing to take in others who can't be trusted**, Pan thought with a small smile and an inward shake of her head.

_Her_ Bulma would have been thrilled to hear that she and Vegeta would have met, regardless of the circumstances.

"So, what's your name?" Bulma asked, following Pan's astonished gaze to her tail.

"Hmm? What did you say...? _Oh_, right. My name's Pan Son," she answered absently, growing frustrated when Bulma's flickering tail kept slipping away from her fingers.

Bra laughed lightly at the scene before her, but Bulma's reaction was unseen by the two Demi-Saiyan's.

"S–So–Son?" Bulma asked shakily.

Pan frowned, "Yeah, Son. Why do you ask?"

"By any chance, is your father's name _Goku Son_?" Bulma asked, anxiously awaiting Pan's answer.

Pan grinned cheekily, "No."

**Some things are just meant to be**, she mused wistfully.

Bulma sighed with relief and Pan could see that she was relieved by the way her posture seemed to deflate.

"He's my grandfather," Pan stated with a flippant shrug and with those words, Bulma was out like a light.

**x-X-x**

As Trunks piloted the ship into Vegeta-sei's atmosphere, he inwardly thanked Kami that Romula-sei was one of the neighboring planets.

"You know, I don't think that mom's going to be very happy when she finds out what we did," Trunks started absentmindedly.

Vegeta was not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination, so he grunted from his position next to Trunks.

"It's not that I'm complaining, father, but the massacre that I just participated in will ensure that you and I will not be allowed to go on _any_ diplomatic missions for the next couple of years," Trunks murmured pointedly.

"Good," Vegeta answered with a small smirk.

Suddenly, a high-pitched beeping noise went off, signifying an incoming message. Trunks clicked the orange button to the right and from his peripheral vision, he could see the screen relay Nappa.

"Sire," Nappa started, bowing traditionally.

Straightening to his full height, Nappa stated, "As of ten hours ago, our Queen's planet has learned of Romula-sei's destruction."

Vegeta frowned at the mention of Vegeta-sei's important ally, Chikyuu, the only indication that showed he had heard Nappa's words.

"They are repealing the alliance, claiming that it has been broken because innocent blood has been shed," Nappa's brow twitched. "What would you like me to d—"

Knowing that he needed to nip this in the bud, Vegeta waved his gloved hand dismally, "Enough!"

His impending migraine was only a couple of words away, so he gave quick, short instructions, "Do not report this incident to the Queen, Nappa. I will do that myself. As for these _rebelling Chikyuu-jins_, well, I will contact them as soon as I land to arrange a meeting. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir," Nappa answered with a quick nod of his head.

The screen went blank then and in its place was a rapidly approaching Vegeta-sei. Vegeta inwardly sighed; he could not wait to get home.

**x-X-x**

As soon as Bulma came to, Bra decided that it was safe enough to leave. Bulma tried to tease apart the nightmarish tangle of disappointments and failures that Pan's life had become, but she seemed to understand Pan's reluctance to answer her questions.

It was a little unnerving to see how wise_ this_ Bulma was compared to _her_ Bulma. While her Bulma was smart and knew a lot of things, this Bulma spent a lot of time thinking about the reasons behind those things.

"Look, I know that you're hurting and I know that your heart has been broken—don't look at me like that. I know what a broken heart looks like—but you can trust me. I would never betray you, Pan," Bulma's features immediately softened and she could almost feel the jumble of emotions coming from Pan as her face first went pale and then pink.

Pan lowered her head, her eyes having grown suspiciously shiny and Bulma couldn't completely suppress a grim smile as she observed the play of emotions across Pan's face because the direction of her thoughts were almost embarrassingly obvious to her.

"Do you promise to keep my secrets?" Pan asked and then inwardly cursed when she heard how wobbly her voice was, how weak and pathetic she sounded.

The naked emotion on the Pan's face made Bulma feel slightly sick. It was a bald reminder of how hurt she was and Bulma swallowed against the lump in her throat as she nodded her head.

"I promise," Bulma replied thickly.

It didn't take much after that for Pan to pour her heart out to Bulma. She told her everything; about her troubles with her father, about her newfound power, about the time machine and most of all, about what had happened with Trunks—leaving out his identity, of course.

Her newfound strength was what had shocked the cerulean haired genius the most; everyone on Vegeta-sei believed that Vegeta was the only one who could turn into _The Legendary_ because of his pure blood line... and he was; Vegeta told Trunks on numerous occasions that it was quite impossible to become a Super Saiyan because of his _Chikyuu-jin defect_.

Bulma made Pan promise her that she wouldn't transform while she was on Vegeta-sei because she feared that political, domestic havoc and disorder would occur if the others were to have knowledge of this and Pan agreed under the circumstances. Bulma was quick to comfort her, although she didn't really know why and Pan supposed that it was because it was a part of her nature. She also explained about her tail growing back; Vegeta-sei's atmosphere allowed one to regenerate a lost tail because Saiyans were weak without their precious appendages—Pan was just surprised to know that she had one to begin with.

**Why didn't daddy tell me about this? He must have had a tail at one point in his life or another**, Pan thought, hurt that her father would keep something like this from her, but she didn't dwell on the thought for a long period of time as Bulma also explained in great detail that Pan's scent was so strong because she was nearing _season_; she learned that if she wanted to sedate the scent, she would need to take some pills.

When Bulma was sure that Pan had digested all of her information, she made a show of sniffling loudly, "I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that, Panny."

The corner of Pan's mouth twitched.

"He must be blind. I mean, look at you. You're beautiful!" Bulma motioned violently with her hands; Pan blushed prettily.

"It's okay. Really. It's not even that important anymore," Pan sighed, surprising herself by leaning into the hug Bulma was giving her.

**Liar!** Her conscience hissed. **You know that it's important to you!**

**Shut up!** Pan hissed back, remembering something else she wanted to ask Bulma.

"Actually, I would really like to know about _my_, er, _your _time machine," Pan said; Bulma blinked a few times.

"Oh! Right," Bulma chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully. "I'll have to a have a little talk with Radditz."

As soon as his name slipped out of her mouth, she frowned. While she found it hilarious to hear about how determined he was to catch Pan by roaming all over the palace, the simple fact was that he had waited and still hadn't said anything about Pan irked Bulma to no end.

"In the meantime," Bulma placed her hands on her hips to make it a point that she wouldn't be refused. "You'll be staying in the room next to Bra's. It's an adjoining bedroom on either side, so you'll be able to talk to her if you need anything. My son is on the other side."

She sighed then, reminiscing, "We had to keep a room in between them when they were children because they would try to kill each other all the time."

She hadn't noticed that she had gotten off-track until Pan cleared her throat awkwardly.

"Yeah, well, they're pretty much like that back home too," Pan said, shrugging casually, but was inwardly shaking; she would be roomed right next to the person whose fault the whole reality jump was to begin with.

"Let's get you that pill," Bulma said, motioning for Pan to follow her. "And while we're at it, we can get you some weights too since I'm sure that you're just dying to test your newfound strength."

Pan nodded her head eagerly, the thought of being roomed next to Trunks fading fast from her mind as Bulma continued to explain what were the best type of weights she should use, "I think that you should use the heaviest material we have, backed with thick leather for the seams and the inserts. You can even increase the load as you get used to it. I even have a special room for you to train in, so that the level of your power can remain undetected."

At Pan's surprised look, Bulma laughed shortly, "Hey, I'm a Saiyan too or did you forget?"

As if to prove this point, Bulma's tail decided to wriggle around a little.

"Um, yeah, about that... how exactly _did_ you become a Saiyan?" Pan asked curiously.

Bulma grinned wickedly, "Well, I'm not a full Saiyan. Like you, I'm only part Saiyan because I didn't want to forget about my Chikyuu-jin heritage... Say, have you ever heard of a little thing called _Dragon Balls_...?"

**x-X-x**

When Vegeta and Trunks finally landed on Vegeta-sei, there were two Saiyans waiting for them. The first one was Bardock, the head of strategical commands. Bardock was one of the very _few_ Saiyan's Vegeta gave the slightest respect to and the only Saiyan who would openly take the opposing side in an argument if he felt it needed to be brought to light. He had raised Vegeta as his own son when his father was too busy slapping women around in the harem or out purging a planet for Frieza.

The second Saiyan was Trunks' mistress and Vegeta took great pleasure demeaning her every chance he got. This time was no different; his upper lip curled in disgust when he saw the filthy female. He supposed that she might have been considered pretty once, but she didn't hold a candle to his daughter and she didn't have the intelligence and pride his mate carried. In Vegeta's opinion, Trunks' little toy should have been used during his first rut and then cast aside with the garbage; nothing more and nothing less.

"Sir," Bardock gave him a short nod.

As he began to converse with Bardock, Vegeta could see Trunks being whisked away out of his peripheral vision and he inwardly shook his head, **You're such a stupid boy, Trunks. Can't you see that you're just being manipulated by that dirty whore?**

**x-X-x**

The next couple of hours passed by Pan in a miserable blur. She was bruised, tired and cranky at how thoroughly she had been schooled all morning. Despite the fact that she had acquired new power, she still didn't know how to control it and found her new sparring partner a formidable opponent, especially since she been wearing leg and arm weights the whole entire time that she had been sparring with said opponent.

It seemed that no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't ever seem to match her opponent in the department of speed. Possibly the most irritating thing about this experience was the eerie smile her opponent wore the whole time. Pan was used to a variety of expressions from her opponents. Sneers and emotionless masks she was used to, having known both Vegeta and Trunks. Scowls were the norm with her father and bored calculation was to be expected from Piccolo, so it was a little odd to fight someone who never stopped grinning, even on the rare occasions when Pan actually managed to land a blow.

Bulma's idea of training consisted of Pan and her opponent, Ryuk, sparring for nearly two hours straight, while she watched, nodded thoughtfully and took notes. By the end of those two hours, Pan realized that Ryuk was starting to take it easy on her, which actually stung her pride a little bit; that drove her to fight even harder, but every blow she landed was just further proof that her partner was holding back.

Finally, her partner went to make one of his flying spin-kicks, but was just a hair slow on the launch. Instead of ducking or blocking, Pan stepped inside the kick and sunk her left first into her partner's stomach. Ryuk fell down for the first time that morning and when he got up, he was still smiling, but Pan realized that he was also breathing heavily.

"All right," Bulma called, startling both Saiyans. "That was a really good match. I think you will make an excellent sparring partner for Ryuk, Pan."

"What are you talking about, Bulma?" Pan asked, shaking her head. "I barely hit him at all."

"Pan..." Bulma said in a disappointed voice that made Pan's skin crawl. "This was just an assessment. Not many people on Vegeta-sei can hold their own against Ryuk and especially not for two hours. I've never seen anyone wear him down like that since he first learned how to fight."

Ryuk nodded then, "Our Queen is correct, Son-san. We must train together, so that we can harness our true power."

"True... power?" Pan repeated dubiously.

"Yes," Bulma cut in gravely. "It is one thing to be born with true power, to be given talent that one has not earned and it is quite another to be like Ryuk, a third-class Saiyan who has no special abilities or skills, other than that of his own determination to be the best. His willingness to work for his goal is going to take him far in life."

Pan frowned as she considered Bulma's words and seconds later, she gave a sharp nod as she made up her mind, "You're right."

"Good... Ryuk!" Bulma barked. "You still need to work on your endurance if Pan can wear you out. Double your weights and run five laps around the palace!"

Ryuk practically cheered at this announcement, which confused Pan even more, but as he strapped heavy bracers to his forearms and began running out of the training room, Bulma took Pan aside to work on her forms.

While Pan loved to spar, she had never had a lot of individual instruction before, so it was a novel experience as Bulma had her settle into one fighting stance after another and began correcting her posture and foot placement. At first, all the tiny adjustments seemed silly. Did it really matter if her left foot was turned slightly outward instead of slightly inward? But, then she remembered who she was with and did as she was instructed. When Bulma then had her shift from one stance to another using the corrected forms, Pan was surprised at how different it felt.

Her surprise must have been visible because Bulma began to explain the reasons for the corrections. The turned in foot affected how the knee flexed and allowed her to retreat more fluidly if she faced a strong attack. The slightly flexed rear knee allowed her to chamber a kick with that foot an instant faster. After each explanation, Bulma would ease her through the motion, making Pan repeat it at least three times so that the proper form would have a chance to engrave on her memory.

Next, they began working on punches and blocks in conjunction with the corrected stances. Everything seemed to flow together much better than Pan remembered, especially since Bulma's voice seemed almost hypnotic as she talked Pan through all of the basic moves. She never seemed to lose patience or become distracted and Pan found it a little unnerving, but she was more entranced by the way everything seemed to flow together.

Time passed a lot quicker than Pan realized because they had just finished running through all of the basics when Ryuk staggered into the room, red-faced and breathing hard, so of course, Bulma immediately had them spar again. It was slightly more even this time; Ryuk was clearly winded, though he soon got his breathing back under control and Pan's movements were a little smoother as she occasionally scored a glancing hit on her opponent.

Ryuk was sweating hard, but he was still smiling as they fought. Dimly, Pan realized that for Ryuk, fighting when he was tired was just one more challenge for him, another way to make himself a little bit better and then she wondered if she should start worrying when such an odd person began to make sense to her. It was after eleven o'clock and they were both considerably worse for the wear when Bulma called a halt to the sparring.

"That's enough for today," Bulma said with a nod, then pointed to a door in the far corner of the room. "Pan, you can go wash up in the bathroom over there. There's a change of clothes that I'm sure will fit you perfectly. Remember to leave the weights here. I don't want anyone to know what you're doing. Ryuk, you should go get washed up as well. You have to report for outer-palace guard duty soon. I expect to see you both here tomorrow at the same time."

Ryuk nodded sharply and Pan watched with some amusement as he struggled to keep upright as he followed Bulma out of the room. Pan walked a little slower toward the bathroom in the training room and as soon as she cleaned up, she found herself wandering the palace and ending up in another training area.

She studied all of the men sparring with interest and frowned in disappointment when she noticed that they were all paired up with one another, **Well, that sucks.**

She felt new energy flowing into her limbs and wanted another worthy challenge. Seeing that she wouldn't be getting that anytime soon, Pan walked off to the side and sat down to study their techniques more closely, much like what Bulma had done to her earlier. She watched each pair spar with interest and found that the most interesting pair to watch was the one in the left corner.

Although she couldn't see the actual faces of the men sparring, she could pick out their ki signatures easily. Somehow, their technique felt _familiar_; it was almost as if she had known that technique before. She watched with rapt fascination as a man came crashing into the wall on her right. He sank to the floor and rubbed his head gingerly; when she began laughing, some of the other sparring pairs took notice of her.

"What do you call that?" Pan asked, laughing at the man's stupidity. "I saw that coming two kicks and a punch before you got sledge-hammered."

She was oblivious to the little circle that was gathering around her.

"I mean, _everyone_ knows you never try defend high after your opponent begins punching higher. He's just trying to get into your defenses. In the long run, he _will_ sweep you off your feet," Pan said pointedly to the glaring man as she tried to control her laughter.

"And in your case, mold you into the wall," she began laughing uncontrollably once more.

"Well, well, isn't this interesting?" One Saiyan commented with a sneer.

"What do you think you're doing in a first-class male training facility, little one? Hmm?" Another Saiyan questioned mockingly.

"I came to spar," Pan said, laughing lightly. "But, you all seem to be occupied. After seeing the display your friend here put on, I'm _sure_ it wouldn't be worth my time anymore."

Pan lifted her nose up in the air haughtily and floated to her feet.

"But, let me tell you what," she threw over her shoulder, intending to leave. "I'll come back for a visit."

Grinning wickedly when she felt several ki's flare at her words, she thought to herself, **Saiyans are_ so_ easy.**

"I'll fight you, little one," a masculine voice said behind her.

The man behind her missed the sharp grin that flashed on her face, **Good boy.**

**x-X-x**

For as long as she could remember, Ruuka Moon had loved Trunks Vegeta Briefs. It didn't matter that he was the crowned prince of Vegeta-sei, or that his father and sister couldn't stand her, or that he was seven years her senior. She fell for him hard the day he saved her life.

Back then, she had been a fourteen-year old Saiyan girl whose future had looked bleak and whose throat had been nearly swollen shut in fear as she approached a rather large group of Saiyans sitting in a bar that wasn't anywhere near Trunks' infamous taste. She remembered propositioning him, knowing that her only other choice was to be tossed back onto the streets, even as the rowdy group of Saiyans surrounding him had fallen unusually silent.

Trunks had regarded her from the dark fringe of his lashes and then flat-out refused her. She remembered panicking, knowing that he was her last chance, even as he demanded to know how old she was; the rather large group of Saiyans surrounding them watched on in horror and they all looked disgusted at how she was dressed and the fact that she had offered herself for sex. Ruuka remembered telling Trunks that she was eighteen and how he had called her a liar and demanded nothing but the truth.

It was only when she saw the man standing across the room watching her, the man who had insisted she earn her keep starting that night that she had broken down, sobbing in earnest as Trunks and the other Saiyan men stared at her in stunned silence.

Trunks had flanked her, all but dragging her out of the bar where he took her to Vegeta-sei's palace, sat her down in the lavish banquet hall, made her eat and demanded the whole truth. She confessed that she had run away from home and had somehow ended up on a part of Vegeta-sei that she wasn't familiar with with no money, no way to eat and no way to support herself. She had been picked up by a ruthless pimp and expected to earn her keep by prostituting herself, only she had failed miserably; that night had been her final chance and Trunks had turned her down flat.

After that, there hadn't been any more questions. Trunks had given her her own room in the royal quarters and had his mother look out for her since he had no idea how to take care of her and he had never looked back. Now, here she was in her room with Trunks and he didn't look satisfied at all.

With a mixture of hurt and confusion wracking her brain, Ruuka watched Trunks pace around her room like a caged lion; furiously, almost to the point of marking a path on the carpet of her room. She couldn't understand why he was avoiding her now. She knew that she and Trunks had been drifting apart for quite some time now, but was he no longer comfortable around her as a result?

She wasn't ready to let go of the relationship she shared with the man who had become her lover for the last three years. She loved him and she wanted more than his protection; she wanted his love.

In the midst of his limited wandering, Trunks suddenly caught and held her gaze cautiously. The wariness in his eyes wasn't something that she was used to. He had never been easy, but he had always been hers—her friend, her confidant, her protector. She didn't like the distance that had opened between them in the space of a few hours.

"Is something wrong?" She asked softly.

He shook his head and looked away. She looked down, trying to control the wash of emotion his rejection caused. Across the room, she heard Trunks groan. Then suddenly, he was in front of her, pulling her into his arms.

"I'm sorry, Ruu."

His use of her nickname did little to comfort her and she looked up at him, her eyes an open book.

"I don't understand why you're acting this way, Trunks," Ruuka murmured quietly.

Trunks bit out a curse and clasped her face between his two hands, "Look, Ruu. You will always have a home here, but..."

He trailed off then and as she studied his face, searching his eyes for something, she asked, "Did you even miss me while you were away, Trunks?"

When he didn't answer her right away, she leaned forward, his hands still framing her face, until her forehead rested against his, "I missed you so much, Trunks."

A pregnant silence followed Ruuka's statement before Trunks took a step away from her, letting his hands fall from her cheeks, "I can't do this anymore, Ruu. I'm going to spar. Don't bother waiting up for me."

With that, he was out the door, leaving behind a silent and sullen Saiyan female. Suddenly, she grew angry that he didn't seem to care for her as much as she cared for him and with a loud screech, Ruuka grabbed the nearest thing she could get her hands on and threw it against the wall of her room.

The vase shattered upon impact and she watched as shards of jeweled chips flew in a million directions, cascading around the room like jagged rain drops, much like her heart. It was as if all the strength suddenly fled from Ruuka's limbs because like a candle being snuffed out, her strength was suddenly gone, leaving her weak and defenseless.

She turned away from the door then and sank to her knees, hardly aware of the glass embedding itself into her skin as she began to cry, **Why can't you just love me, Trunks?**

**x-X-x**

They came at her all at once and most of them were surprised to see how fast Pan reacted to their attacks. A swift upper cut to one Saiyan sent him crashing next to his unconscious friend. Using a foot sweep, Pan dropped at least three or four men while she dealt with two others attempting an aerial attack. They couldn't feel ki and she used that to her advantage, yet sympathized with their weakness.

**An emotion I probably received from grandpa Goku**, Pan inwardly scoffed.

Feeling the power strumming through her veins, she realized that she had gotten more powerful due to the new tail and weights she had aquired.

"What's happening?" She heard one Saiyan yell.

"Who _is_ she?" Another voice sounded, causing the smirk on her face to widen.

It was only when a punch connected with her jaw that she got angry. With an explosion of light emitting from Pan's small form, she powered up until she was at the brink of the Legendary, but not quite going over the edge as she had promised Bulma.

Most of the Saiyan men were tossed all over the place because of the concentrated energy being expanded, except for one. Pan's eyes fell on his face and must have widened at least an inch before she visibly trembled.

"I'll take you on, little girl," he said with a smirk.

* * *


	5. Voluptuous Obsession

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition**(s);**_

1. Baka: Stupid.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 5:** **Voluptuous Obsession **

It was the man's distinct face that made Pan gape at him.

**Grandpa?** She thought with incredulity; she could feel the color draining from her face as the sparks surrounding her body diminished.

There was complete silence in the large, dome-like training facility as the man—who Pan _presumed_ was her grandfather—rolled his eyes at her gaping face and took on a fighting stance.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Are you just going to stand there and admire my good looks or are you going to fight me?" He asked, his voice dripping with something akin to disgust.

Cocking her head to the side curiously, Pan gave the man a thorough once-over. She suddenly realized that the man in front of her was definitely _not_ her grandfather because he was kind and patient, whereas the man in front of her looked ready to blow his top at any given moment.

Her facial features scrunched up in thought, **How could I have missed it before? His ki signature is all _wrong_! It's so much lower and darker than grandpa's ki signature. Besides, grandpa was Chikyuu's angelic savior. This man is a complete and utter asshole!**

Her mouth twisted into a frown as another thought struck her, **But, if he isn't grandpa Goku, then who exactly _is_ he?**

Pan didn't miss the annoyed look the man in front of her shot her and mumbled a none-too-intelligent, "Huh?"

"Power the fuck up!" He snapped.

Pan flinched and scoffed, **What a _disgusting_ lack of manners.**

"You _don't_ have to yell at me," she growled, drawing closer to the burly Saiyan in front of her.

**I can't _believe_ I mistook him for grandpa**, Pan thought with an inward grimace.

A vein protruded from the man's forehead and he bared his teeth at her, "I'll _keep_ yelling at you if you don't fight me!"

Pan took the offensive and lunged at him, catching the towering Saiyan off-guard; her fist connected with his right cheek with an intense charge and the blow thrust his head backwards. For a few moments, there were no movements at all from the soldier. Then he turned his head towards her and she could see something dark burning in his eyes; underneath that darkness was a thin layer of shock.

"I wouldn't have done that if I were you," the man said in a soft voice—a voice that was _too_ soft for Pan's tastes—and it was then that she noticed their proximity.

**Damn!** Pan thought, her eyes widening fractionally. **Baka! Baka! _Baka!_ What did Bulma tell you?**

She could already hear the aqua-haired genius chiding her in her head, "_You have to avoid the males, Pan! Although these pills will subdue the alluring scent, it doesn't do squat in close proximity contact._"

There was only one thing Pan saw fit to do at a time like this, so rearing her fist back, she slugged him again. The strange warrior yelped and clutched his stomach fiercely, his tail curling around his waist. Recovering quickly, his vision shot back to hers and Pan wasn't sure if he was going to strike her or swallow her whole. Not liking either choice, she quickly settled into a fighting stance and waved him at her.

"I'm ready now," Pan said, a smirk gracing her lips as she powered up slightly, acting as though she didn't see the implied innuendo in his eyes.

He was confused at first, but his confusion quickly turned into anger. Then a smirk that mirrored Pan's graced his mouth.

As he was about to begin his assault, a loud voice floated over to their ears, "There you are, you little monster!"

Pan's eyes darted to the side and she was sure that the horror she felt was reflected in her dark eyes, **Why, why, _why_ does he always have to show up when I don't need him?**

**x-X-x**

Radditz stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that most of the wounded soldiers were scattered all over the room like broken rag dolls. After assessing the damage, he decided that none of the soldiers were hurt beyond anything that a few hours in the regeneration tank couldn't cure, but none were also without injury. Well, that was all but two.

"Uncle Turles? What are _you_ doing here?" Radditz asked, arching a brow when he saw his father's twin brother facing Pan.

From his blinking scouter, he could see that his uncle was almost two-thirds on the way to powering up, but he had not quite reached his pinnacle.

Turles shot Radditz a warning look, "Stay the fuck out of this."

He then pointed to a gawking Pan and snarled, "This is between _me_ and _her_!"

**Wow. Radditz's uncle is even bigger than Radditz**, Pan thought, snapping out of her stupor when Turles' words managed to penetrate her thoughts.

"That's right! Stay out of this!" She scoffed, giving a synchronized vociferation as the two Saiyan's turned to face her.

Pan jumped back a bit because both Saiyan's looked threatening, but then she remembered how she had reduced Radditz into a puddle of goo earlier on and realized that looks _could_ be deceiving. However, she showed no indication of her thoughts as she glared at the two men.

"You don't understand. She's not like _us_," Radditz hissed in an accusing voice, referring to Pan.

Turles shot Radditz a disbelieving look and rolled his eyes.

"All right, Radditz. Let's hear this. What the hell is wrong with her?" Turles asked sarcastically, his impatience to the situation becoming obvious.

With a sneer, Radditz stepped closer to his uncle, "Not a word of this leaves your lips, understand?"

Turles nodded in agreement.

"I just came back from talking with the Queen and she's a Demi-Saiyan, just like the crowned Prince of Vegeta-sei," Radditz whispered in a hoarse, urgent voice, trying to make his uncle understand the situation at hand.

"You mean—" Turles looked over at Pan for confirmation. "—She's a–a weakling _half-breed_? Damn! I was playing with the idea of taking her. She smelled so fucking _good_!"

"She's not a weakling," Radditz corrected his uncle, choosing to overlook the words he said a few seconds prior. "Don't forget what happens when you have a Saiyan and Chikyuu-jin hybrid."

Turles knew that Radditz was referring to the crowned Prince of Vegeta-sei, who was nearly as powerful as his father was.

"And—wait, _you_ were thinking of taking her as a mate?" Radditz asked, unable to overlook what his uncle had said earlier.

Turles looked exasperated and in an attempt to redirect his nephew's thoughts, he waggled his eyebrows suggestively, "Not as a mate! I was just thinking of _taking_ her..."

Radditz made sure to shoot Turles a dirty look before approaching Pan.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Turles shouted at Radditz.

"I'm going to escort her to her room," Radditz tossed over his shoulder, as if it were an obvious thing.

"Oh, no, you're not," Turles ground out, making Radditz pause in mid-step.

"What do you mean_ 'oh,_ _no, I'm not'_?" Raddtiz asked as he turned to face his uncle; his eyes narrowed at the finger being wagged at him.

"_I'm_ going to _fight_ her," Turles answered simply, making Radditz's ki flare at his words.

"You still don't get it! I _have_ my orders!" Radditz shouted, his scowl deepening when he realized his brawny uncle wasn't going to back down without a fight.

With a small sigh, he began to beat his forehead with his hand, **He's just so dumb...**

**x-X-x**

Pan watched the two men battle back and forth over her and although the discussion—

**Hmph! Discussion? Don't you mean verbal fighting?** Her conscience mocked.

—happened to be about her, both men seemed to be oblivious to her presence.

"Men," she mused out loud. "Can't live with them. Would do _so_ much better without them."

She thought about kicking their asses, but it seemed like physical fighting happened to be the farthest thing from their minds at the moment. Looking around the room, she saw some of the men—that had previously met her fist or foot—getting up and either limping off—probably to the medical wing—or listening in on the conversation. Those who stayed to listen in on the conversation were enthralled by the argument, unlike Pan herself.

"You still don't get it! I _have_ my orders!" Radditz yelled, his face mere inches away from his uncle's face.

"Orders? From whom, _nephew_?" Turles hissed.

"Queen Bulma," Radditz uttered cockily; he heard repetitive gasps around the room.

Pan rolled her eyes, **Oh, brother. Now I need an escort?**

**x-X-x**

Lost in thought, Trunks walked aimlessly through the long corridors of the palace. Most of his thoughts were centered on finding a good sparring partner; his blood demanded it after killing all of the worthless inhabitants on planet Romula-sei, but part of his thoughts kept flickering back to Ruuka's strange behavior. While it annoyed him to admit that his father was correct and while he knew that he shouldn't have let the relationship with Ruuka get as far as it had, the simple fact was that there just wasn't a suitable replacement.

Finding a willing, supple female was definitely _not_ the problem and many times, he had to dispose of women; he would find them in his bedroom when he came back from a spar in the early hours of the morning or he would find them sneaking in during the night when he should have been sleeping. The problem was finding a female that was strong _and _desirable.

It was hard enough to find someone who could handle his stature _and_ fulfill his special needs without breaking or at least, needing to lie down in the regeneration tank for a few hours. The few women that _were_ strength-wise worthy could be downright gruesome and cause sores on his precious eye-sight. Trunks' mind floated back to sparring; he knew that his father was preoccupied with his mother, which meant she probably wouldn't walk for another few days, so he had to satisfy himself by training with the lower classes.

On his way to the elite training facility, Trunks could hear voices from the first class training room.

"Voices?" He thought aloud, his brows furrowing. "What are they doing...? Are they _talking_ about sparring instead of actually fighting?"

Trunks shook the thought off as he further investigated what all the noise was about.

He came to a room and saw two men yelling at each other at the top of their lungs, **Both men are red in the face.**

He listened to their conversation with disinterest, until he heard his mother's name mentioned. His eyes hardened and he faded out to stand right before the duo.

"What did you say about the Queen?" He asked, his curiosity piqued.

Their jaws opened and closed several times; Trunks thought they looked like fish, but waited for them to speak. It took a few seconds for one of them to actually speak, but during the time that they didn't speak, he also came to the conclusion that they very much acted like fish.

"Th–the Queen ordered me t–to escort Pan Son to her r–ro–room," Radditz managed to get out.

"I see," Trunks murmured, suddenly losing interest for the situation at hand as he stared at the female standing near them.

He ran his tongue along his bottom lip as his eyes raked over her face greedily. Pan's eyes were wide and the intensity of her black depths contrasted to his pale and unusually bright eyes.

"Well, I'll settle this," Trunks said, the corners of his mouth tugging into a smirk.

He paused dramatically before continuing, "I'll escort her."

"I don't need a fucking escort," Pan said icily, snapping out of her stupor.

Her jaw was tense and set in clear defiance. After overcoming his immediate shock, Trunks' grin grew bittersweet as he arched his brow at Pan; her cheeks were flushed in anger and her hands were fisted by her side.

"Such a foul mouth for a seemingly serene creature," Trunks mused aloud, amused by her response.

**After all, she must be intrigued by me if she can't take her eyes off of me**, he thought arrogantly.

Radditz and Turles scoffed at Trunks' choice of words.

"You should have seen her earlier, my Prince," Turles uttered, laughing in amusement.

"She stole this from me—" he pointed to the slight reddening on his cheek and then lifted his shirt to show Trunks the damage Pan's punch had caused. "—and this."

A laugh tickled his throat and he tried very hard to swallow it back as a wide grin broke out on to his face, **So, she likes to play rough, eh?** **This is excellent!**

"I would have done more too, if this—" Pan took a step towards Radditz. "—_moron_ didn't stop me from pounding his relative into the ground!"

Pan was raging and her eyes were alight with fire once more. Just looking at her, Trunks could see that she was full of life _and_ energy.

**Perfect**, he thought, his eyes glinting with mirth as he watched Pan flagrantly insult the two soldiers.

"Weak girl, you could've only tried," the older Saiyan said, crossing his arms over his broad chest and scoffing.

Trunks put on an air of indifference as he waved his gloved hand, "Enough!"

Signaling to the steamed relatives with his fingers, Trunks ordered them to go back to their rooms. When he turned back to look at Pan, he noticed she had disappeared as well.

Trunks chuckled with delight, "Little minx, you have taken my interest and you will _not_ escape me now."

With that thought in mind, he decided to go find his mother.

**x-X-x**

A few short hours after his landing, Vegeta was suspiciously silent when all four of his leading officers and his right hand man, Bardock stepped into the conference room.

They were all staring at him with varying degrees of impatience, so Vegeta began without preamble, "Bardock, is there any news on Chikyuu-sei?"

Bardock rose to his feet as all eyes turned towards him. In some ways, he supposed this was considered to be intimidating.

Fortunately, he was unconcerned by such peripheral matters when he bluntly stated, "It would seem like our leading ally has revolted. News traveled fast of the massacre on Romula-sei and the Chikyuu-jins weren't too happy about it, considering that they feel like we've broken the treaty with them."

"That's preposterous!" Beileo—a second class officer—cried, jumping out of his chair.

Bardock idly wondered how long the man been a member of the council as he resisted the urge to roll his eyes in annoyance. Instead, he nodded and willed the outraged officer into his seat.

"Of course it is, but we can't do anything about it. I talked out the terms with one of their diplomats and it seems that they refuse to believe that we did not assault Romula-jins," Bardock said seriously, a slight frown on his face—a frown that displayed his agitation.

A round of coughs made its way around the room at the thought of their King's actions being labeled _unprovoked_.

"What about the Queen? Is she not of their origin? Could she not _talk_ with the Chikyuu-jins?" Gallot, a first class commander, asked.

Vegeta's head perked up at the mention of his mate and a secretive smile crept on to Bardock's face; he knew that he didn't have to read the King's thoughts to know what—rather,_ whom_—he was thinking of.

"No, you forget Gallot, it was many years ago that her Highness lived on her native planet. For Chikyuu, the generation that would have remembered her vast influence with inter-planetary affairs is gone."

Several heads lowered at the thought of their Queen's brief life span.

"Enough! We will continue this at a later date," Vegeta commanded with a wave of his gloved hand.

"Is there any domestic news?" Vegeta asked with an air of indifference, contrary to his piqued interest.

"_Ahem_," Gallot cleared his throat awkwardly. "A third of my soldiers are located in the regeneration tanks, Sire."

Vegeta blinked, shocked by the revelation, although he didn't let it show through his mask of indifference.

"I heard about that!" Ry'ono—a third class officer—exclaimed. "A single soldier took out at least _forty_ men without a scratch on him!"

Beileo, Bardock, Gallot and Fringo nodded in agreement; they had all heard the same rumor floating through the halls.

Vegeta rolled his eyes, **These men are no better than gossiping women! Hmph!**

"I heard that your brother and son were involved too, Bardock," Beileo said, grinning at Bardock's shocked face.

Bardock covered up his shocked look with a smirk, "I wouldn't be surprised. I'm sure you've all experienced the hot-headed duo."

The four officers winced in agreement; Vegeta was becoming more interested by the minute.

**If this _is_ true, then things are looking up. I may even be able to acquire a new sparring partner**, A wicked grin crossed Vegeta's face at the thought.

"Er..." Gallot started, shifting lower in his chair. "It wasn't exactly one of my soldiers..."

Synchronized brows furrowed in confusion.

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" Bardock asked, his eyes narrowing at Gallot's obvious discomfort.

"Well, um–it–the person who knocked out all of my soldiers was an unclassified female," Gallot blurted out all at once.

"_What?!_" Shouted the previously silent Vegeta.

All of the officers looked at their King in trepidation.

"Where is she?" Vegeta raged.

"I–I–I do–don't know! She disappeared with Bardock's kin!" Gallot pointed a gloved finger at Bardock accusingly.

Vegeta arched his brow at Bardock, his tail twitching back and forth in agitation.

"Bardock," Vegeta started calmly.

"I haven't seen either of them since I left early this morning, Sire," Bardock answered before Vegeta could even ask.

Vegeta grinned roguishly and pointed a gloved finger towards Bardock.

"You _will _talk to your son—" he commanded and moving his attention towards his officers, he stated, "—and _you_ _will_ let word out that I want this female alive and kicking, so to speak, in my throne room in two days."

"W–wi–will you be awarding a prize, Vegeta-sama?" Beileo asked, sliding up a little in his seat.

Vegeta smiled evilly, "No. Let it be known that if I don't have this _girl_ in the time I specified, I will be _very_ displeased."

And with the threat in hand, all of the members of the elite board gulped.

They all knew what their King meant; he was talking about the removal of their tail.

The entire elite board members gulped again.

This was _not_ a good sign...

* * *


	6. Restless Hunger

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Onna: Woman

2. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 6:** **Restless Hunger**

After Pan managed to escape Trunks' company, she suddenly realized that she didn't know where she was headed. Leaning against a wall, she slid down to the ground and raised both of her hands to bury her face in them. As hard as she tried to prevent it, his image was burned into her memory and she could still hear her heart pounding in her ears.

A scowl made its way over her features when she realized how much he still affected her, "I hate him!"

She was furious that she'd _allowed_ herself to feel that way again after all that had happened between them, she was furious that she wasn't good enough for him and that Trunks didn't reciprocate her feelings; Pan could feel her ki slowly begin to rise. Forcing herself to calm down, she realized that she couldn't afford to lose control again and thought about the Trunks in _this_ universe to make her mind calm down.

**He's so different here. He's been brought up as a Saiyan—brought up as a ruthless warrior—brought up as a slave to the crown of his father**, Pan mused thoughtfully.

**So, why does it hurt me so much to see him again? Why is he breaking my scarred heart all over again? Why is it that we're just mere feet away, but so many miles apart? **Pan felt her eyes sting with fresh tears, but quickly subdued them by blinking quickly.

**Trunks is different here—not only mentally, but physically as well. His lavender hair is so incredibly long. My—No—**_**the**_** Trunks I knew never would've let his hair grow **_**that**_** long.**

"I may have lost my heart and soul, but I will _never_—" The air around Pan crackled with energy and the tiles that lay on the ground began to rise around her. "—lose my _dignity!_"

The palace walls began to shake as Pan's eyes lolled, stricken with barely suppressed rage.

**I'm**_** not**_** weak! **Hair flickering gold, Pan didn't even notice the fact that she began to levitate into the air.

**x-X-x**

Bulma was in the middle of a heated, passionate moment with Vegeta when the palace began to quake.

"Wh–what's going on?" Bulma gasped, her blue eyes wide with fright as her fingernails dug into Vegeta's back.

Her eyes darted to the embellished light fixture swinging back and forth above their bed and she felt—more than saw—debris from the ceiling snowing down around them in disarray. Vegeta's face twisted into a look of shock when he realized what was happening; he could _feel _the immense power radiating in the western wing of the palace.

**It's her!** Vegeta realized with growing excitement. **I'm finally going to catch her and _make_ her tell me how she beat up all of those men!**

Jumping off of Bulma, Vegeta frantically searched for his spandex. When he found it, he put it on with a speed that even _he_ hadn't known he possessed.

"Tell me what's happening!" Bulma demanded as she struggled to sit up on the bed.

Frowning, she placed her hands on her hips and had to suppress a snort when she caught sight of _where_ Vegeta's eyes were looking.

"A ki," he answered absentmindedly.

Bulma frowned disapprovingly, "You're worked up over a ki whereas I'm here, naked _and_ ready for you? Are you kidding me? Besides, Trunks—"

"Onna, it's not of the brat's ki," Vegeta said, stopping Bulma from going into a mini-tirade.

Noticing the dawning light settling in Bulma's eyes, Vegeta made a move to leave, **But if it's not Trunks' ki, then it has to be someone stronger. Someone like—like...**

"... Pan," Bulma whispered, her eyes growing wide with panic.

"What was that?" Vegeta asked, giving Bulma his full attention.

His obsidian eyes were alight with suspicion and Bulma gulped, anxiety rolling off of her slender body in waves.

"I–I said, oh, _man_!" Bulma answered, not believing that Vegeta would buy what she'd said for a second.

**He can always when tell I'm lying to him. That is, the few times I've ever done it**, Bulma inwardly grimaced.

Her eyes searched Vegeta's for some sort of emotion—for some sort of sign that told her he _knew_ she was lying, but he only shrugged and headed for the door once more; Bulma didn't even have the time to sigh in relief.

"_No!_" She cried, running towards Vegeta.

He turned towards her, growled in frustration and arched a curious brow.

"I mean, don't go!" She whimpered, recovering quickly.

"What the hell do you _want_, onna? I have to go _now_!" Vegeta hissed; Bulma could tell that he was losing his patience rapidly. "It's that female! I know it!"

Wrapping her arms around his thick, strong neck, Bulma brushed her bare body against Vegeta's; she immediately feigned ignorance when she felt his hardened member poke her abdomen.

"Stay, 'Geta," Bulma purred sexily, using the nickname she knew would make him weak in the knees. "I'll be _so_ _alone_ if you leave me, baby. I _want _you, 'Geta. I _need_ you, 'Geta."

She placed her mouth against his own and was delighted when she heard him gasp in surprise. However, she was the one to yelp in surprise when Vegeta captured her tongue with his sharp canines; he gently sucked on the wound, savoring the sweet, tangy taste of her blood. Before he could go any farther, however, he felt the ki skyrocketing.

His eyes snapped open and grew a millimeter, **That's impossible!** **There's no _way_ a–a _female_ could have a ki _that_ strong!**

Pulling away from Bulma, Vegeta whispered in a strangled voice, "There's time for this later..."

**I still have a chance to catch the ki**, Vegeta decided.

It was only when Bulma's fingers began to encircle his tail that Vegeta felt his knees weaken significantly; he _knew_ that Bulma knew how much she affected him.

"_Onna_," Vegeta growled pitifully, his voice sounding like a plea.

His groin tightened when Bulma's gentle fingers trailed over the base of his tail to the tip of his tail in a teasing gesture.

"All right, 'Geta," Bulma purred into his ear, licking the outer shell.

Vegeta sighed in—what Bulma guessed to be—relief as he looked at the door. Suddenly, the ki didn't seem as important anymore. Several times, he looked at Bulma's nude form and then towards the door, feeling torn. Bulma inwardly smirked in victory when Vegeta kissed her roughly, his tongue forcing its way into her heated mouth. However, _that_ victory was cut short when he pulled away.

"Don't move!" He commanded huskily—and slightly out of breath—over his shoulder.

With a slam of the door, he was gone.

"Asshole!" Bulma yelled to the closed door.

An indignant frown covered her face, **Pan, _please_ don't get caught!**

**x-X-x**

Pan was so wrapped up in her own emotions that it was only until she could feel the snapping point—that last level before reaching _the_ Legendary—that she forced herself to calm down.

Her breath came in short, rapid pants as she tried to suppress her inflamed ki.

**Look at you**, her conscience began. **You almost lost control. Tsk. Tsk. What would Bulma say?**

Scoffing, Pan surveyed the damage she had caused and decided it was repairable. The walls and floors were full of deep cracks and holes and there was no tiling underneath her feet at all. Instead, what lay beneath her feet was a metallic cement-like surface.

"What the hell happened here?"

Pan swung her head to the side and searched for the familiar masculine voice she'd become so used to.

"Why do we always meet under the most strangest circumstances?" Pan inquired once she spotted the floored Radditz; she inwardly smirked when she realized her voice radiated with indifference.

"Who did you piss off_ this_ time? The _great _Vegeta-sama himself?" Radditz asked, whistling as he eyed the damage to the corridor.

"I somehow _knew you_ were involved when I felt a ki rise out of the blue. So, who was he?" Radditz asked, scratching his chin contemplatively.

"It was a big guy," Pan lied, crossing her arms over her chest as she inwardly thanked the Vegeta from _her_ universe for teaching her how to lie with a straight face. "And he was _way_ taller than _you_."

"I'm not surprised," Radditz muttered absently. "There's only three people on this planet that could've created this magnitude of damage."

Radditz eyed Pan firmly, "And those people are the King, the Prince and _my_ father."

**Well, he sure sounds cocky about his guesses**, Pan inwardly snorted. **Why does it always have to be the men who create the damage? Why can't women create damage? Because we're weak? Tch. Give me a break, we're living in the twenty-first century!**

"Well, I have yet to meet the King or _your_ father, so I can't exactly tell you," Pan threw over her shoulder.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going? You don't know your way around!" Radditz yelled after her, outraged.

He forgot to ask her where the Saiyan she'd encountered had gone to as he quickly made his way to her side. Pan stopped walking, surprising Radditz.

"All right, all right," she consented. "_Escort_ me to my room!"

Rolling her eyes, she followed Radditz down the corridor.

**x-X-x**

"You!" Vegeta growled as he slammed the door open.

His eyes were darker than usual—if that was even possible—and Bulma started nervously when the hairs on the back of her neck prickled.

"Um, uh, yes, Vegeta?" Bulma answered, fearing that he knew her little secret and was furious; at least, he _appeared_ to be furious.

She backed towards the backboard of the bed, but it wasn't because she was afraid of Vegeta—it was simply because he was terrifying when he was mad.

"Do you _know _what I saw when I finally—" Vegeta emphasized _finally_ with his deep voice. "—arrived?"

Vegeta took his time as he walked towards Bulma.

"N–no. What did you see, Vegeta?" Bulma asked, attempting to smile sweetly at him; she failed miserably.

"Well," Vegeta started, taking his spandex off slowly.

He put one knee on the bed where Bulma lay and his eyes darkened considerably, "First, there was an immense amount of destruction and—"

Bulma pulled the covers over her head and squeaked.

"—there wasn't a fucking person in sight!" Vegeta growled angrily.

Bulma refrained from sighing in relief.

"Now—" a very nude Vegeta peeled the covers away from her face, his tail thrashing behind him in excitement. "—what do you have to say for yourself?"

With a nervous, cheeky grin, Bulma said the only thing she could think of, "Uh, oops?"

"Oops? Is that _all_ you can say?" Vegeta asked maliciously. "Hmm, well, I have an idea. Since you're so fond of torturing me, how about I punish you?"

With a wicked glint in his eye, Vegeta leaned forward to kiss Bulma, **Now, _this_ is going to be fun...**

**x-X-x**

"Is _this _all mine?" Pan asked, gaping at the extravagantly lavish room she was in.

Although the bed was a little small, it was more than enough to fit two of her petite selves onto it; strange, exotic furniture were scattered all about the large room and although she would've never thought of putting the sight before her together, the set-up somehow worked.

"Of course," Radditz answered, scoffing as he leant against the door frame, seemingly disinterested.

Turning to Radditz, an expectant glint danced in Pan's black eyes, "Well?"

"Well, what?" Radditz asked.

"Get out!" Pan said, shaking her head at his stupidity.

Radditz rolled his eyes and mumbled incoherent things about "_bitchy women_" and "_no respect_" as he left Pan's room. Hours later—after Pan had explored every inch of the room—she flopped down onto the couch and stared at the ceiling blankly.

"Bored... Must find _something_ to do," Pan choked out, blank eyes darting around the room.

She looked for something she hadn't seen or broken yet when her eyes landed on _it_. As if she were a child on Christmas morning, Pan quickly hopped off of the couch and pounced on her bed.

She jumped up and down, feeling elated, **Hey, I deserve to have fun. I've been doing nothing in this boring room all day!**

**x-X-x**

"_So_, mother," Trunks started casually as he spoke to his mother on his vid phone.

He was apprehensive about visiting his mother because he knew that he would have to face his father's wrath had he interrupted one of their _sessions_. Therefore, Trunks decided to call her. After all, if she was busy, she simply wouldn't respond and he wouldn't get his ass kicked later; Trunks was delighted to find his mother resting _alone_.

"_So_, Trunks," Bulma mimicked, naturally curious as to why Trunks would call her.

"I hear you know about this Saiyan female I ran into today," Trunks stated bluntly, knowing his mother would understand whom he was referring to.

Bulma's eyes widened and she waved her hands in front of the screen in a frantic motion.

"Oh, no, no, _no!_" Bulma hissed, frowning at Trunks to get her point across. "I only have two words for you, Trunks; _Off Limits_."

Secretly, Bulma realized that she didn't _mind _seeing Pan and Trunks together much. From what she had guessed of Pan's brief explanation, they had been quite close in her universe.

**It must be weird for Pan to see Trunks after all that's happened**, Bulma mused thoughtfully, but then realized it didn't matter _what _she believed because Pan was healing from previous love wounds and she _knew_ how poorly her son treated the opposite sex.

**Pan doesn't need to get hurt... _again_**, Bulma thought with an inward frown.

"Why? And what do you mean?" Trunks asked, flashing his mother an innocent smile.

Bulma snorted with disdain, "You're just a wolf in sheep's clothing."

"Come on, mom," Trunks whined petulantly. "You can at least tell me where she's roomed."

Trunks pouted, trying to sway his mother. However, he stopped pouting when his expert ear picked up upon hearing laughter in the room next to his own.

"Is that one of _father's _diplomatic guests?" Trunks asked his mother incredulously.

"What are you talking about?" Bulma asked, unable to hear what was going on through the screen.

"There's laughter in the room next to mine. I've never heard any of father's diplomatic guest's laugh before. Why start now?" Trunks asked, confusion clouding his inky blue eyes.

Bulma shrugged, holding back the laughter that was brewing in her stomach; she knew _whom_ he was referring to.

Trunks rolled his eyes and sighed, "How juvenile."

**x-X-x**

It was only when Pan was really starting to get into the habit of jumping on the bed did she hear a knock on her door.

Pan paused and rolled her eyes,** It's _probably_ Radditz. What does he want _now_?**

She began to prepare herself for a fight as she padded to the door.

Swinging the door open, Pan started, "Don't you know—"

Her voice caught in her throat when she saw that the person—rather, people—before her was definitely _not _Radditz.

"Oh, uh, hi," Pan said, noticing the three exotic creatures that stood before her.

"Miss Son?" One of the exotic creatures asked with a delicate, feminine voice.

She had blue skin, large rectangular ears and her hair was a light greenish color.

**Like her eyes**, Pan mused whimsically.

Next to her was a similar female.

**They're obviously of the same race**, Pan mused, noticing that—behind the two female aliens—there was a male alien.

Instead of the blue presented on the two females, his skin tones were certain yellows and golds; his hair was a reddish color and reminded Pan of a mop. However, all three aliens were similar in that they wore similar gold bangles on their biceps.

"Yes, can I help you?" Pan asked, arching a brow.

**Who are they and what do they want?** Pan thought with a small frown.

"We have no names. Only numbers given to us, Miss Son," the same female who had asked for Pan's identity answered. "We've been ordered to escort you."

**She can read my thoughts!** Pan observed, beginning to panic.

"Don't feel violated," the other female alien said, trying to comfort Pan. "It's not intentional. It's a curse of the A'yokans."

She bowed her head in a small apology.

"Then, how do you know when someone is talking or thinking when they aren't looking at you?" Pan asked, scratching her head in confusion; in that moment, she felt like her grandfather Goku—a man who was _always_ in the dark.

"It is hard to explain, but we can try on the way," the first female said with a small smile.

**All right**, Pan thought with a grin, knowing the exotic aliens would hear her.

**x-X-x**

Bulma was in the middle of arguing with Trunks when a vid-phone-window popped up behind her.

"Is there a problem, 2617?" Bulma asked the exotic female.

However, before 2617 could speak, Bulma heard loud screaming in the background.

A small frown found its way to 2617's mouth as she began to explain, "Miss Son will not cooperate."

2617 then pointed to 2618 and 3392 trying to catch a screaming Pan. Bulma's jaw dropped open and her eyes widened, hardly able to believe Pan's uncooperative attitude.

"You can't make me bathe!" Pan yelled to the two slaves, quickly jumping over the bathtub.

Fortunately enough for her, both 2618 and 3392 fell in.

"Tell Pan I'd like to have a word with her," Bulma said absently, watching as an exasperated 2617 called out to the lithe Saiyan female.

"Bulma!" Pan yelled as she ran up to the screen, delighted to see the blue-haired genius.

Bulma ignored the gasps amongst the slaves of her informality.

"I'm so glad to see you! They tried to take off my clothes and—" Bulma interrupted Pan's flustered whispering with her laughter.

"It's not funny!" Pan said, resisting the urge to stomp her foot. "I tried using the exit, but they locked the door from the outside and I really didn't want to blast through it after the—"

"—Damage you caused today?" Bulma finished for her; Pan blinked in surprise. "I'm not Queen for nothing, you know."

"In any case, what's wrong with being in the nude if you're bathing?" Bulma asked, genuinely interested.

Bulma might have believed it had to do with being from another planet, but then she remembered there had been no modesty in front of members of the same sex on Chikyuu.

"It's not that," Pan whispered.

"It's_ him_!" Pan pointed to the red-haired man, silently waiting for orders; Bulma openly laughed.

"Panny," Bulma started with a small smile. "3392 is an asexual being."

Pan eyed the male-like creature who adorned a smirk on his face; he nodded in confirmation.

"Like Piccolo?" Pan asked suspiciously as she turned to look at Bulma.

"Like Piccolo," Bulma confirmed with a nod.

"All right," Pan agreed.

Bulma turned off the window and realized her error when she noticed that Trunks was gone.

**x-X-x**

Upon seeing the Saiyan female he had been searching for through his mother's vid-screen, Trunks realized that she was at the bath house.

The bath house was made exclusively for royalty—with the exception of a few guests. In fact, the name itself described the large room very well. Therefore, Trunks didn't even stick around to listen to his mother and her slave converse; he left in high spirits immediately.

**x-X-x **

"It's dark blue," Pan said, wrinkling her nose as she referred to the hot water.

"Get in. It feels relaxing," 2618 encouraged.

Pan eyed the water carefully and put one toe in to test it. Looking at 3392 nervously, she jumped in and was surprised when the water only came up to her waist, leaving her upper body cold.

"What's that?" Pan shrieked when she felt the exotic women rubbing something slick onto her skin.

"Oils," one of the women replied, rubbing the soothing oils onto her arms and shoulders.

Soon, Pan found herself leaning into the exotic female's touch, liking the way the oil made her feel. Pan felt warm, rough hands on her back and knew it was 3392, but didn't care as she flexed and unflexed her tense muscles.

"Funny, they don't smell like anything," Pan observed absently, stretching her sore muscles.

"And cover up your natural scent? Never," 2617 laughed musically.

Involuntarily, she sighed and closed her eyes. Her muscles hadn't felt this relaxed since... well, her muscles had _never_ felt _this_ relaxed. Usually, she wouldn't have left herself this open for an attack, but she couldn't help it; she'd been seduced by their skilled fingers. She didn't even notice when the door had opened and closed until their hands had stopped.

"Hey! Why'd you stop?" Pan asked, turning around; her heart jumped into her throat when she saw _him_.

"Trunks," she breathed, her voice thick with shock.

Trunks smirked crudely, "Finally, I've found you and you're not getting away this time. _You_ are _mine_..."

* * *


	7. Bittersweet Surrender

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Onna: Woman

2. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 7:** **Bittersweet Surrender**

When Trunks opened bath house doors, he was nowhere near prepared for the sight that greeted his eager eyes; in the dark water was the woman he'd been searching for. His blood ignited into flames of desire as he watched her innocently relax. The servants—as he'd rather call them—rubbed every inch of her smooth skin and Pan seemed to be enjoying it as she leaned into their skilled fingers.

His gaze traced the enticing curve of her perfectly rounded breasts and he searched for more, but the opaque water kept her lower body hidden from his view. He suddenly felt like a peeping tom and _tried _to stare at something else other than Pan's attractive facial features, the smooth planes of her toned stomach or the fullness of her breasts, but his eyes_ refused_ to budge and remained glued to the young Saiyan female he met earlier, who'd somehow entranced him with her beauty and wicked mouth.

The servants stopped touching Pan and stifled gasps of surprise when they saw Trunks standing in the doorway. Pan—oblivious to Trunks' presence _and_ his raging ki—opened her eyes to investigate why the servants had stopped rubbing her tender skin.

"Hey, why'd you stop?" Pan pouted childishly, turning to look at the servants.

When she noticed their eyes directed at something—rather, _someone_—other than herself, she followed their line of vision.

"Trunks," she breathed.

Trunks smirked and Pan had almost forgotten about the smirk she'd become so used to—she'd almost forgotten about the smirk she loved to hate and hated to love.

"Finally, I've found you and you're not getting away this time. _You_ are _mine_," Trunks whispered, his blue eyes reflecting his hunger.

Reflexively, Pan crossed her arms over her exposed breasts to grant herself some modesty; she failed to realize she was giving Trunks a better view of her cleavage.

"Get out," she stated calmly.

Her tone of voice bothered Trunks and he might've hesitated if he hadn't seen how much her eyes betrayed her; he could tell that she was angry by the way her ki was rapidly rising.

**No, you _moron_. She's seething!** Trunks' conscience screamed furiously.

He couldn't stop himself from noticing the way her blush spread feverishly—like wild fire—across her cheeks and neck. Sensing the tension, the slaves left the room, but Pan didn't seem to notice. Intrigued by her behavior, he started towards the warm water.

"I–I said g–get out!" Pan choked out.

Trunks reached the bathtub in a few, quick steps and laughed at her flushed face. He slid into the water, not caring that he was getting his spandex wet. Instinctively, Pan backed into the tub's tiled wall; her eyes darted around the room for—what Trunks guessed to be—a means of escape.

"St–stay back!" Pan shouted, shooting some lazy ki blasts at Trunks; he was able to easily dodge them and quickly came to the conclusion that Pan's intent was not to harm him.

**Why doesn't she want to hurt me?** Trunks thought, confused.

Daring himself, he trudged over to the raven-haired temptress until he was mere inches away from her face.

"Wh–why are you doing this to me? Haven't I suffered enough?" Pan asked softly, her eyes brimming with tears she refused to shed.

Taken aback, Trunks stared at Pan through clouded eyes.

"I–I don't understand," he answered honestly.

He couldn't understand why he felt so compelled to answer Pan, but something within him felt _connected_ to her; it was like he'd seen her before, but he quickly dismissed the ridiculous notion.

"I–I know you don't. It's..." Pan paused and swallowed the lump in her throat as she blinked her tears away furiously. "It's _complicated_."

Trunks stared into her eyes for a long moment, **Complicated? What does she mean? This onna is so complex... but _I _intend to solve that complexity.**

Trunks placed his hand behind Pan's neck and pulled her close to him; she was so close, he felt her breasts molding into his chest. Stifling a groan, he could feel Pan's muscles tense as he proceeded his curious exploration. Placing his nose in the crook of her neck, he inhaled deeply. Feeling drunk off of her scent, he was nowhere near ready for the reaction his next words would cause.

"You smell _intoxicating_," Trunks breathed, nuzzling Pan's neck.

He didn't see the way her jaw clenched—he didn't see the fire in her eyes before she raised her hand to strike him, but he did feel her muscles contract and her ki flare violently; he looked up just in time to see a blow heading straight for his jaw.

**x-X-x**

"Vegeta-sama," he began by bowing traditionally. "May I have a word with you?"

"Bardock," Vegeta started lazily as he took a seat on his throne.

"You and I know damn well that you'd speak even_ without_ my consent," Vegeta rolled his eyes and waved his hand, indicating that Bardock should rise.

"It's about Fringo's son," Bardock started. "He wishes to—"

"—Mate with my daughter. I know that already. Get to the point!" Vegeta said, cutting Bardock off.

"It seems that the polls have been drawn up; a high percentage of the mated population would like to see Princess Bra mated with Fringo's son," Bardock finished.

Vegeta's temper flared violently, but beyond his fury, he was more than a little unsettled.

"What polls? Was there a survey sent out behind my back?!" Vegeta roared at Bardock.

**First, I hear that some woman beat** **fourty fucking men** **and now I hear about this–this** **_poll_? What the hell is _wrong_ with the world?** Vegeta's muscles contracted violently.

Bardock waited for Vegeta to calm down before deciding to speak again, "Actually, Toma's been trained very well, sire. He's possibly the fifth strongest man on this planet."

"You know how I feel about _Toma_," Vegeta spat out, meeting Bardock's surprised gaze; he was sure to remind Bardock of his place.

"Yes. Of course, sire," Bardock bowed once more and left the throne room in a hurry.

**x-X-x**

"_Oof_," Trunks exhaled as Pan's fist connected with his jaw.

He slid back a few feet, but quickly righted himself.

"What was _that_ for?" Trunks shouted angrily, trying to hide the agony he was feeling as he rubbed his tender jaw.

"For being a–a jerk," Pan countered, taking refuge in the water.

Trunks scowled at her reply, but secretly found the situation amusing as he looked down at her.

"What did I do to you _now_? Did I _hurt _your self-esteem with my compliment?" Trunks asked, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"What I did was for the best," Pan answered petulantly, sticking her nose up in the air, even though she was being looked down upon. "You weren't thinking clearly. My _seasoning_ or whatever you guys call it was making you act irrationally."

"No mere female could _control_ my advanced brain, little girl," Trunks laughed loudly.

In embarrassment, Pan found herself up to her nose in the water; she was surprised that the water wasn't boiling from the heat radiating off of her angry body.

"_What?_" Trunks smirked, dropping to his knees.

"_You_ have _nothing_ to _say_?" Trunks teased softly; there was something about the way he teased her that made her feel like he was ridiculing her.

**I_ hate_ that smirk**, Pan thought, grounding her teeth together in agitation.

However, when Trunks brushed the wet tendrils out of her eyes, Pan wondered why she'd been angry in the first place. After all, his hands were so soothing—

**—In an irritating way, of course**, she thought furiously.

When Trunks took off one of his silver-tipped gloves to fix her disheveled locks, all of her thoughts disappeared.

"You're _so_ easy," Trunks laughed at Pan's cat-like response; there was something about the way she brushed her face against his hand that made his knees grow weak.

Pan's eyes opened at Trunks' comment and a flush broke across her features.

"_Easy?_" Pan echoed, her eyes wide.

Trunks frowned and opened his mouth to explain, but Pan wouldn't listen.

"_I'm easy?!_" She shrieked, her eyes narrowing.

"Well, you're not exactly in control either," she scoffed, referring to the _obvious_ bulge in Trunks' spandex.

Eyes wide, Trunks opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out; his voice failed him.

"_What?_" Pan mocked. "_You _have _nothing_ to _say_?"

She laughed with a remarkably good impression of the one Trunks had used earlier.

"You–you wench!" His eyes narrowed when she continued to laugh at him.

Growling lowly, he wound his fingers through her thick hair and pushed her down into the water. When she'd been down long enough, he pulled her out of the water.

"I hate you!" Pan screeched; before she could wipe the hair out of her eyes, Trunks pushed her back into the water.

"_That's not nice_," he purred, a playful smirk adorning his features.

His lavender tail swayed back and forth, splashing little droplets of water everywhere. When Trunks brought her up for air, Pan took the opportunity to bite his hand with as much strength as she could muster.

"Ouch! You bitch!" Trunks hissed, waving his hand around furiously as he tried to get rid of the stinging sensation.

"You shouldn't have dunked me!" Pan spluttered, her eyes bright.

He leaned forward, bringing himself nose-to-nose with Pan.

"Address me with respect," he growled.

"_No_," she hissed.

Trunks blinked in surprise.

"_No?_" He asked wickedly.

**He changes his tone so fast, it makes me dizzy**, Pan thought with a small frown.

Opting to stay defiant, she crossed her arms and turned her nose up in the air, "No."

She_ knew_ that she'd pushed Trunks to the limit with her defiance and just when she thought he'd retaliate, he struck her. To Pan's surprise, it was not with his hand; it was with his hungry kiss.

**x-X-x**

"_No!_" He shouted, throroughly annoyed.

"But, _Vegeta_," she whined childishly.

"I will not lower my daughter to such a–a _thing_," he ground out through clenched teeth; he _knew_ he was fighting a losing battle.

"She wants to compete!" She argued, placing her hands on her hips in strong willed defiance. "It'll be obvious that her presence will only be for sport! And if she wins, then Trunks won't have to take a mate."

"Onna," Vegeta growled in defeat. "The brat will eventually need an heir."

Vegeta rubbed his temples, trying to block out Bulma's voice.

"But, Vegeta, you needed an heir too. And–and look at how things worked out between us!" Bulma protested.

"Yeah, I'm stuck with a loud-mouthed woman for all of eternity. I don't wish that on _anyone_," Vegeta said, grinning wickedly at Bulma's flushed face.

"Loud-mouthed? You were praising me _and_ my loud mouth twenty minutes ago," Bulma purred seductively, catching Vegeta pleasantly off-guard.

**Trunks was right**, Vegeta thought as his brain momentarily shut down. **His mother shouldn't have been able to walk _years_ ago.**

**x-X-x**

_Back on Chikyuu_

As she gazed out the window, her heart ached for her lost daughter.

"Pan," she breathed out into the warm, summer night; anguish was evident in her tone.

It had been a full, agonizing week since Pan had disappeared.

"—Will be back," Gohan told his wife reassuringly.

Although his exterior betrayed his inner worries and ache, Gohan saw that it was his duty to console his unstable wife. Taking off his work clothes, he folded the bed sheets back to prepare it for use.

"How can you say that?!" Videl raged, standing up. "Our daughter is God knows where and all you can say is, _she'll be back_?! _How can you_—_Why did she_—Oh, God, _why_?" Videl began to sob for the umpteenth time that day; Gohan was sure to catch Videl as her knees became unstable.

**Trunks**, Gohan inwardly raged. **I will slowly _and_ painfully kill you for this. Then, I'm going to wish you back to kill you again!**

Gohan postponed his rage as Videl began to wail loudly. For the rest of the unpeaceful night, they mourned over their lost daughter.

**Come back, Panny. We need you**, Gohan thought, falling into a dreamless sleep.

* * *


	8. Eternal Enemy

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Kami: God.

2. Onna: Woman.

3. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

4. San: Is a formal way of calling an aquaintance.

--

_Italicized_—Dream Sequence

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 8:** **Eternal Enemy**

Pan couldn't believe that Trunks was kissing her; Trunks, the man who'd been her former baby-sitter, the man who was fourteen years her senior, the man who was the most unattainable bachelor in the universe...

... And yet, it wasn't Trunks kissing her because this was a Trunks she knew nothing about, this was a Trunks who was an absolute stranger to her, this was a Trunks who desired her; a man who gazed at her the way she wanted _her_ Trunks to gaze at her—with utter devotion.

Her senses reached new heights and her blood roared in her ears; she heard him release barely audible grunts and felt—more than saw—the way he was smirking against her barely parted lips. Almost immediately, Pan _knew_ Trunks thought he'd broken her.

Frowning against his mouth, she found herself becoming defiant once again, **He won't break me. I _refuse_ to let him break me.**

Lost in her own thoughts, Pan didn't see _or_ feel Trunks' reaction.

**x-X-x**

Trunks smirked against Pan's barely parted lips; they were moist, slightly chapped and felt heavenly. The feel of her soft lips and delicately muscled form pressed against his own heated body made him dizzy with desire.

Releasing Pan roughly, Trunks gazed into her dilated eyes and delved in for another taste of her lips. However, a realization struck him moments later; Pan wasn't responding to his kiss at all.

**What the hell...? This has never happened before**, Trunks thought, inwardly frowning.

To make sure he wasn't going crazy, he opened his eyes.

What he saw drove him to the point of insanity,** Is she actually _thinking_?!**

**x-X-x**

Warm hands curling around her shoulder blades pulled her away from her brooding thoughts. Pan blinked and met Trunks' gaze. Inwardly flinching, she briefly wondered why he looked so angry.

"_What do you think you're_ _doing?!_" Trunks hissed, shaking Pan roughly.

Startled by his anger and caught off-guard by his question, Pan stared at Trunks fearfully.

"Wh–what do you mean?" Pan asked nervously; there was something about the outraged look in his overcast eyes that frightened her—something that made her stomach quiver in a way not entirely due to nerves.

Bracing his arm on the wall to her right, Trunks spoke slowly, "_Stop that now._"

Bracing his hand on the other side of the wall, Trunks loomed over Pan, his expression unreadable; it was driving Pan absolutely insane to be so close to Trunks and yet so far away from him—against her will, her body betrayed her and she reacted to his seduction.

**That's all it is. It's just an attempt to get me into his bed, right?**

"I–I can't," Pan whispered, unable to stop her thoughts.

Trunks' eyes fell to Pan's succulent, yet swollen mouth. Unable to say anything else, he kissed her again. This time, though, Pan didn't fight him back like he expected her to. Instead, she arched into his embrace and thread her nimble fingers through his long hair; she tugged it roughly.

**I'll be heading back home soon. If I can't have the Trunks in _my_ time, then I'm happy to have this one.**

**So, you're going to let him _use_ _you_?! Control yourself, you fool!** Pan's conscience screamed.

Feeling shaken, she pushed Trunks away from her and growled in agitation when she yearned for his touch once more.

"Don't touch me!" Pan shrieked, wiping her lips with the back of her hand; she tried to erase the evidence of the situation, but realized it was futile—being nude didn't help the situation in the least.

**_Great._ I'm trapped**, she concluded.

"Why?" Trunks breathed softly, his breath caressing her skin; thankfully, he didn't try to touch her again.

Pan's tail curled around her waist and she looked at Trunks' tail; seeing how fluffed-out his tail was, Pan figured she didn't need to be a genius to guess what _that_ particular gesture meant.

"Because I–I hate you!" Pan sneered, trying to scowl; she failed miserably.

He chuckled lowly and something in his chuckle made Pan panic; she pulled out her last resort. All at once, she powered up and released a bright flare of golden light into the dimly lit room. Being submitted to the extreme amount of light made Trunks' highly sensitive sight become temporarily blinded; he shrieked and shielded his eyes.

**When I get my vision back, that girl is going to pay**, Trunks thought furiously.

Pan grabbed a towel on her way out of the bath house, **Kami, why me?**

**x-X-x**

"Isn't it funny how everyone's looking for _an_ onna, but only _we_ know that _an_ onna is really _the _onna?" Radditz chuckled lowly.

"I hardly think that this is the time to be _laughing_, Radditz. If we don't _find _the onna, we can say _good-bye_ to our furry friends," Romei pointed out sourly, his tail curling around his abdomen protectively.

"Besides, doesn't your uncle know about the onna too?" Romei asked curiously, trying to keep up with Radditz's long strides; they were both heading back to their prospective quarters after a long day of nothing but pandemonium and headaches.

"Oh, yes. He does," Radditz smiled dryly.

"So, you know who Vegeta-sama wants _and_ where to find her, but you won't turn her in. Do you realize withholding information from our King is, you know, _treason_?!" Romei hissed, cringing at the thought of losing his tail publicly.

"On the other hand," he said pointedly, shaking off the thought. "You've been given specific orders by the Queen to conceal Pan's _true_ identity."

Romei patted Radditz on the back soothingly, **What a mess he's gotten himself into.**

"If I'm not mistaken," Radditz started, smiling maliciously.

"_Your_ tail is in danger too. After all, you did assist me in the act of keeping her identity a secret. Doesn't that mean you've, you know, fraternized with the enemy?" Radditz smiled condescendingly at the look of fear on Romei's face.

**Think happy thoughts. Think about bloody murder, and mouth-watering food and–and that** **_luscious, little woman_...** A dopey grin spread across Romei's face and his tail involuntarily fluffed, causing Radditz to snort.

"Get your mind out of someone's fucking panties!" Radditz sneered with disgust; Romei flushed.

"If you haven't noticed, this place is a _madhouse_!" Radditz exclaimed.

At that precise moment, a blur of flesh and dark hair zipped by; both men blinked in astonishment.

"Was that—" Romei trailed off, feeling shaken; Radditz was in a similar state as he swallowed the forming lump in his throat.

He nodded absently, **If things keep going the way they're going, our little secret isn't going to stay a little secret any longer.**

"Do you want to get drunk?" Radditz asked, his voice frenzied.

Romei nodded weakly, **We might as well since we're dead men anyway...**

**x-X-x**

Bardock _craved _sleep after the long day he'd participated in.

**Tomorrow's going to be a long day too, since the diplomats from Chikyuu are arriving**, he mused wearily; at that moment, he was glad that his room was only a few doors away.

Lost in his thoughts, Bardock didn't notice a body colliding into his unsuspecting chest. Quick in his reflexes, he didn't even slide backwards as the person that rammed into him bounced off of his upper body.

"What the—" Bardock trailed off, looking down at—what appeared to be—a scantily clad woman rubbing her rear.

"I don't have time for this," Pan muttered, rubbing her sore bottom.

"Get out of my way!" She demanded irritably.

Once she stood up, Bardock grasped her by the shoulders firmly and frowned when she didn't meet his eye.

"Damn it, girl! If it had been anyone else your pretty little ass ran into, you would've been in some deep shit," he berated.

"What the hell are you thinking? _Running around in nothing but a towel?!_ Jesus, I can't handle this kind of stress," Bardock mumbled more to himself than to Pan.

Opening her mouth to speak, Pan looked at Bardock's face and suddenly forgot what she was about to say, "_Another Grandpa?_"

Before Bardock knew what was happening, Pan fainted.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" He exclaimed heatedly.

Looking around for anyone who might've witnessed the small scene and seeing no one, he sighed heavily.

"I should get paid for this kind of shit," Mumbling obscenities under his breath, Bardock carelessly slung Pan over his shoulder and began to make his way back to his shared quarters.

**I was right**, he mused thoughtfully. **It's been a _long_ day.**

**x-X-x**

_Back on Chikyuu_

The light of the early morning announced itself to Trunks. He'd been in his room since the night of Pan's immediate departure and for many uncountable hours, he'd been a zombie; he only left his room to eat and even then, he could only pick at his food with disinterest.

He felt incredibly guilty about the whole ordeal, **Is Goten right? Am _I_ the reason why Pan left this dimension...?**

Sighing, Trunks stared at the ceiling pensively, **How did things become so messed up? My best friend refuses to speak to me, my sister can't even look at me without crying and father just looks at me with scorn. Have I really been that dense?**

Seeing Pan in such an independent state had been a real eye opener for him, **Have I always missed the _gorgeous_ woman that lay underneath the tomboy exterior? Pan was always my little Panny. When did she become _Pan_—when did she become _desirable_?**

He wouldn't lie to himself; while absorbing her visibly accentuated curves that simply burst out of her party dress, he'd been caught admiring her. Now that he thought about it too, Pan hadn't been a brat for many years.

**How could I have been so _blind_? **Frowning, Trunks played with the idea of holding a deeper attraction to the girl he'd known since she was a child.

Almost as if he could hear Trunks' thoughts, Gohan blasted his bedroom door off the hinges with an explosion of energy. Gohan's shoulders were hunched, a clear sign that he was trying to suppress his rage.

"_Get up_," Gohan commanded, his voice laced with venom; Trunks automatically obeyed him.

"Hello, Go–Gohan-san," Trunks choked out, trying to form a smile; he failed miserably.

Before he could blink, Gohan's hands were wrapped around his unprepared neck.

"_Where is **my** daughter?_" Gohan demanded; Trunks could feel Gohan's iron-like talons tighten around his neck, restraining his air flow.

"I... don't..." Trunks wheezed painfully as he was pushed further into the wall.

"... Know!" He gasped.

"It's all _your _fault! She left because of _you_! You stupid–you–_fuck_!"

Trunks had never heard Gohan use such foul language in his life; he attributed it to the state of insanity his _friend_ was currently consumed by. Lightheadedness washed over his body when Gohan began to squeeze his throat once more; Trunks barely noticed his father's presence and his mother's gasp.

"If she's not back within the next week, you'll be wishing you were the one to go wherever Pan went," With that Gohan was gone; he passed a scowling Vegeta and a hysterical Bulma.

Falling to his knees, Trunks coughed heavily and rubbed his neck, trying to regain his regular breathing pattern, **I already do, Gohan.**

As soon as Gohan left, Bulma rushed over to Trunks. Getting on her knees, Bulma rubbed his back soothingly. Trunks met his mother's eyes blankly; Bulma knew Trunks was in pain, but it seemed that his battle was more internal rather than physical.

**Why would he be fighting himself? **Pushing her thoughts away, she reminded herself to comfort her son.

"Everything's going to be okay, Trunks. I promise," Bulma soothed, hugging Trunks close.

**Even if I have to take matters into my own hands**, Bulma thought determinedly.

Several hours later when Trunks was sleeping, Bulma headed down to her lab to reconstruct her latest project.

**Things will get better**, Bulma thought. **There has to be a way to figure out where Pan went. After all, the future is not written in stone.**

**x-X-x**

_"Hey, Panny! What are you doing up there?"_

_"I __**was **__having fun, but **we** could have fun too."_

_"Pan! What are you doing?"_

****

**It's jealousy, little girl**. **It's filling your insides, entangling with your emotions and dominating them.** **You're protecting what's yours.**

_"Why?"_

_"I didn't like her."_

_"Oh, so, you were going to kill her** just** because you didn't **like** her? That makes sense! That sounds like something** father** would do... What do you know anyway?"_

_"I know plenty!"_

**How did this happen?**

_"Don't worry, Panny..."_

_"I am __**not**__ a child!"_

**I still don't understand you...**

_"He **must** be blind! I mean, look at you. You're beautiful!"_

_"I wouldn't have done that if I were you."_

**Grandpa?**

_"This is between __**me**__ and __**her**."_

**That's all it is.**

_"Stay out of this!" _

_"You don't understand. She's not like __**us!**"_

_"She's a–a weakling **half-breed**?"_

**We're so dead...**

_**I'm**__ going to __**fight**__ the onna."_

**He's just so dumb...**

_"I may have lost my heart and soul, but I will never lose my __**dignity**!"_

**He's so different here. He's been brought up as a Saiyan—brought up as a ruthless warrior—brought up as a slave to the crown of his father... So, why does it hurt me so much to see him again? Why is he breaking my scarred heart all over again? Why is it that we're just mere feet away, but so many miles apart? **

**Why?**

_"... Pan..." _

_"Look at yourself... You almost lost control."_

_"Trunks..."_

_"Finally, I've found you and you're not getting away this time. **You** are **mine**..."_

_"Don't touch me!"_

_"Why?"_

_"Because I hate you."_

**What the hell...? This has never happened before.**

_"You're so easy."_

**You're going to let him _use you_?! Control yourself, you fool!**

_"You bitch!"_

**He changes his tone so fast, it makes me dizzy.**

_"Our daughter is God knows where and all you can say is, **she'll be back**?! **How can you**—**Why did she**—Oh, God, **why**?"_

**Come back, Panny. We need you...**

_"I can't..."_

**What's happening? My family, my friends... everything is falling apart because of _me_.**

_The world became blurred... There was blood... There were tears... There was darkness before her vision... Then, there was just darkness._

_**NO!**_

Pan stirred, thrashing violently and then stretching lazily. Her eyes didn't feel the need—nor were ready—to open yet, letting in the intense morning rays. Low humming flowed freely in the air; it was an unfamiliar, wordless melody that hit Pan straight to the core. A smell filled the air; it was the unmistakable smell of _food!_

**Was I _dreaming_?** Pan thought with a small frown. **But, it felt so _real_.**

Opening her eyes, Pan looked around the room, assessing her environment. She was in—what appeared to be—living quarters.

"Oh!" A low, distinct feminine voice said. "You're awake!"

Turning to her side, Pan saw the kitchen area and a slender Saiyan woman.

"Who are you?" She scowled, attempting to look menacing.

The woman—who looked like she was in her late thirties—shot Pan a wry smile, taking the strange food off of the cooking machine.

"Sereri," the woman answered. "And you are...?"

"Pan," she replied.

**How is it that Saiyan's can carry only one name?** Sereri thought, genuinely intrigued.

"Those are mine," Sereri grinned, referring to the long nightgown Pan wore. "I didn't think a towel was well _suited_ for nightwear."

The night before struck Pan like thunder and a blush spread across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose.

"Oh," Pan smiled sheepishly. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure," Sereri said, shrugging her shoulders flippantly.

"How exactly did I get here?" Pan asked, scratching the back of her head.

"Hey, mom!" A masculine voice floated in from the door, interrupting the pair of Saiyan women. "Is breakfast ready?"

Pan turned her head to the side, inwardly cringing when she recognized the voice, **Please don't let that be...**

"... Radditz..." Pan breathed, meeting the surprised eyes of the Saiyan she'd managed to reduce into a pitiful state the day before.

**Great. This is just _my_ luck...**

* * *


	9. Acting The Part

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 9:** **Acting The Part**

He ended up waking up in one of Vegeta-sei's brothels and he knew this because a delicately shaped feminine tail curled around his waist.

"Do you want to fuck me again?" She purred, nuzzling his brawny shoulders.

With a snarl, he turned on her, "You vile whore!"

Grabbing her by the tail, Radditz ignored her yelp of pain and found himself drawn to her dark eyes; there was something about the way she was looking at him that made his fingers loosen their hold on her tail—something that exuded power and made him think of sinful things.

**Her eyes are like Pan's**, Radditz thought, his mouth parting hungrily.

"You're such an asshole," she sneered. "Why did you do that?"

Crossing her arms over her breasts, she tossed her head haughtily as her tail wound itself around her waist protectively.

**She even has _her_ temper**, Radditz thought, feeling mesmerized.

Raking his fingers through his impossibly long locks, he decided he was going crazy.

"I have to, uh, go," he mumbled, gathering his discarded clothing.

Once he did that, he immediately bolted out of the brothel, **What's**_ **wrong**_ **with me? She's just a girl... **

Taking a deep breath, he decided, **That's right, she's just a girl.**

**x-X-x**

A short while later—when he was sure he was sober—he entered his house, his mind focused on food.

"Hey, mom!" He yelled, his voice echoing off of the walls. "Is breakfast ready?"

Walking into the living room, Radditz was shocked when he laid eyes on the girl who he'd been thinking of an hour prior.

There was a moment of shocked silence before Pan spoke, "Radditz..."

Radditz snorted with disgust, "Why am I not surprised?"

He glared at Pan accusingly and folded his arms across his broad chest, "Everywhere I go, there _you_ are. Is this _just_ a coincidence or does God take pleasure in making my life a living hell?"

Without waiting for an answer, he stalked past the living room and into the bathroom. Grumbling to himself, he slammed the door shut, leaving Sereri and Pan alone once more.

"Well," Sereri started. "That was _weird_."

Pan swallowed nervously when the other woman turned to look at her inquisitively.

"You know," she muttered thoughtfully. "Not many people are able to affect Radditz like that. What exactly was he talking about?"

Pan chuckled weakly, "Well, it's like this..."

**What am I supposed to say? It's one thing to tell Bulma that I'm from another dimension and that I'm Goku's granddaughter, but telling a complete _stranger_ is another thing altogether! Then again, it's not like she'd know grandpa anyway... **Pan's mind jolted, suddenly remembering what Radditz had called Sereri when he'd first entered the room; _mom._

**Sereri is Radditz's mom?! How can that be?! She looks so young**, Pan stared at Sereri dumbly.

Exasperated, Sereri ran a hand through her hair, which bore a remarkable resemblance to Radditz's wild mane.

"You've already met Radditz," Sereri started, walking into the kitchen.

Pan followed her, watching her toss colorful _things_ into the food.

Sereri continued to watch the food simmer before she spoke, "And that meeting apparently didn't go too well. Now, are you going to _tell_ me what happened or not?"

Recalling how her first meeting with Radditz had gone, Pan lowered her head and stared at the floor, feeling shame creeping up her neck and into her cheeks.

"Radditz found me injured after an _accident_," she began hesitantly, deciding that the partial truth was the best idea for now. "We, um, didn't hit it off too well when I woke up in the regeneration tank. He slung me over his shoulder and tried to take me... well, I don't exactly know _where_ he was taking me. I just know that he was taking me somewhere. And—"

The embarrassed flush on her cheeks darkened and Pan finally lifted her head to see Sereri staring at her intently.

She smiled weakly, "—I bit his tail."

Sereri's eyes grew wide and then twinkled with amusement, "Yo–you _bit_ Radditz's tail?! No wonder he isn't happy to see you! Bardock's going to have a field day with this _tale_!"

In a vain attempt to contain her laughter, she turned off the stove and transferred the food into a bowl. Setting the bowl in the middle of the table, she turned to look at Pan, a broad grin on her face.

"Damn it! It's not funny, mom!" Radditz protested from the bathroom.

Seconds later, he came out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, looking more cleaner and alert; seeing the conspicuous white bandage wrapped around the end of his tail, Sereri's grin grew.

Radditz scowled darkly, "We only have white bandages left. Lay off."

However, his protests only caused Sereri to laugh harder as she began to set a few more items on the table. Growling irately, he stalked over to the table and sat down in one of the chairs.

Glancing at Pan, Radditz smirked, "Nice clothes."

Pan looked down and blushed, "Well, I hardly think I should be sleeping in a towel."

The smirk on his face fell and he shifted uncomfortably, "So, what are you doing here?"

Drawn by the alluring scent of Sereri's food, Pan padded over to the table and took a seat.

"I don't know," she said, her eyes becoming distant. "I was trying to get back to my room and I ended up running into a man who looked a lot like my grandfather. After that, I don't really remember anything."

"The man who brought you here last night was my husband," Sereri said, seating herself at the table.

She began to load her plate with food; Pan and Radditz quickly followed suit.

Giving Pan a scrutinizing look, Sereri asked, "What's your grandfather's name?"

"Gock–u So–n," Pan replied, her mouth full of food; Sereri's food was delicious and it left her mouth tingling and her taste buds begging for more.

She sighed happily as she reached for the pitcher of green liquid and poured herself a large glass.

"Oh," Sereri muttered.

Chewing her food contemplatively, she realized she didn't recognize the name, **Gock Uu Sun. How strange. It's probably just a coincidence that Bardock reminds Pan of her grandfather. Although for a moment there, I thought she was going to say Turles.**

She snorted in amusement, **After all, Pan seems reasonably tempered and she doesn't have much of an ego from what I've seen so far. Eh, whatever.**

Shrugging off her thoughts, she continued to eat, but there was something in the pit of her stomach and she knew that that feeling had to do with Pan, **Why does she seem so familiar...?**

**x-X-x**

"What's _wrong_ with you, Goten? You've been acting strange all day!" She shouted angrily.

"Marron, I–I said I was sorry. I–I don't even know what came over me," Goten said, trying to still her shaking hands. "It was an accident. I swear!"

He gave Marron the best puppy dog eyes he could muster, trying to communicate how sorry he was for biting her neck and almost puncturing it. Unfortunately for him, he underestimated the extent to which she was upset with him because she deftly yanked her wrists out of his hands and slapped him with as much strength as she could muster.

"Argh! Look at what you made me do!" She hissed in pain as her soft flesh connected with his stronger-than-steel skin.

Whimpering, Marron clutched her injured hand with her undamaged one and glared at Goten accusingly.

"Marron," Goten murmured with concern as he rubbed his stinging cheek.

Clumsily groping for her injured hand with his other hand, he said, "Let me look at that."

Unfortunately for him, he barely managed to lay a finger on her before she darted away; she quickly disappeared into the bedroom they'd been using.

"Stay away from me, Goten!" Marron hissed frostily. "And don't think for a minute that I'm going to share a room with you when we get to Vegeta-sei."

"Mar—" Slamming the door, the blonde quickly shut him out. "—ron."

He stared at the door miserably, trying to figure out what was wrong with him... and what was wrong with her. She'd been so happy with him on Chikyuu—

**If you can overlook her extreme mood swings**, Goten's conscience mocked. **You've become weak. You've allowed yourself to believe that you and that weak girl will actually settle down. Do you really think you'll be happy with her?**

Goten ignored his conscience's mocking accusations. Oblivious to everything around him, he didn't even notice the computer's audible warnings that their large craft was preparing to enter Vegeta-sei's atmosphere.

**I thought I was happy with Marron, but maybe... Maybe it's time to move on...**

**x-X-x**

**Stunning? ... No, that won't do. Gorgeous? ... No, that won't do either. What about beautiful? **Sighing with frustration, Trunks ran through his mental list of descriptions, trying to find a word that would suit Pan.

"Minx," he breathed, grinning roguishly.

**It suits her**, his conscience decided.

Running a hand down his naked body, he shifted on the bed, imagining what it would feel like if Pan touched him.

Groaning, he wondered, **Am I falling for this girl?**

His blue eyes hardened, "_Never._"

Lost in his own thoughts, he didn't notice Ruuka enter his bedroom until she pounced on him.

"Hi, baby. Are you thinking about someone?" She purred, her words oozing with sexual hunger.

She pressed herself against him and Trunks growled; he'd forgotten all about Ruuka and the disagreement they had the night before.

**I thought I made it perfectly clear that I'm not interested in her. Now, I see that I overestimated her intelligence.**

"Yes," he answered curtly.

Mistaking his growl for one of encouragement, she began to nip his shoulders lightly. He groaned involuntary; the built up stress and utter frustration of not being able to tame Pan was driving him crazy.

"Don't tease me," he muttered, taking her wandering hands firmly by the wrists.

Swiftly pinning her against the mattress, Trunks watched her futilely struggle against his hold; he had no intention to play her game, but it amusing to toy with her. Smirking, he closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

Moments later, his eyes opened and grew wide,** She's in mid-season?! But... how can this be? I would've known when we—**

He was unaware of the distress he was displaying as his eyes darkened; Ruuka smirked. His body began to act on its own and he panicked when he realized he was aching to bond with her. Crushing her body against his own, he struggled to control himself.

"What are you doing? You're hurting me. Let me go," Ruuka whimpered, breaking the spell that held Trunks' mind captive.

Breathing rapidly, Trunks pulled away from her and thinking that he was simply complying with her wishes, she attempted to wrap her arms around his sweat-slicked body. However, he rolled away from her and rose from the bed, pulling on a loose fighting gi that would conveniently conceal his excited state.

**I've got to leave now**, Cursing every vulgar oath he knew, he turned to look at Ruuka.

Thinking that she'd captured him with her gaze, Ruuka allowed Trunks to critically observe her every perfection and imperfection. He opened his mouth to speak and Ruuka _knew_ that he was hers.

"I want you out of here by the time I get back or I'll have you convicted of breaking into the royal quarters," Trunks pronounced coldly.

With that, he was gone. Staring at the closed door that Trunks had just left through, Ruuka found herself burning with hatred.

**Who's taken your attention away from me, Trunks?** Ruuka thought with a mixture of hurt and jealousy.

"Well, whoever she is, she won't be here for long because Trunks belongs to me," Ruuka's eyes grew malicious.

**That's right, Trunks belongs to me.**

* * *


	10. Mirror of Contrast

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 10:** **Mirror of Contrast **

"What the _hell _is taking them so long?" Vegeta exclaimed heatedly.

Bardock watched Vegeta struggle with his inner rage as he struggled to maintain his own; the space ship had been sitting in the space dock for the past ten minutes without showing any signs of life.

**I should just blast the door open and drag those stupid diplomats out by their hair**, Vegeta inwardly grumbled.

"My time is precious. It shouldn't be wasted, Bardock," Vegeta said, finally acknowledging Bardock's presence.

"Perhaps they're experiencing a technical difficulty, sir," Bardock suggested calmly, successfully managing to hide his own irritation.

**After all, one of us needs to keep a level head and that one of us isn't going to be Vegeta, since patience has never one of his strong points**, he resisted the urge to laugh.

"We should have the communications crew attempt to contact them and ask them if they need some _assistance_," Bardock smirked.

The human diplomats were supposed to _help_ the Saiyan's and Bardock knew that they would be more than embarrassed to accept help getting off of their ship; it was definitely not the way to maintain professional dignity.

Shaking his head, Vegeta changed the subject, "Did you get a chance to talk to your son or brother about that unclassified female?"

"No," Bardock scowled irately. "I returned to my quarters last night to speak with Radditz, but he wasn't there. Come to think of it, he wasn't there when I woke up this morning either."

He sniffed in distaste, "Knowing Radditz, he was probably at some pub. I haven't had any time to track Turles down yet, but I'm willing to bet that he didn't spend the night sleeping."

"_Ah_, yes," Vegeta snickered. "Your brother's reputation is well known in Vegeta-sei's brothels. I've been meaning to ask him how he accomplished the feat of not obtaining a brat yet."

Bardock opened his mouth to reply, but stopped when he heard the hiss of pressure seals releasing. The doors belonging to the ship snapped open and then the ramp descended; both men schooled their faces to a professional mask of indifference.

"Goten, if you don't hurry up and get those capsules, you're going to embarrass us," Marron hissed within the confines of the ship; her words were so distant that both men struggled to hear what she was saying. "If you had paid attention, then you would've known that we landed nearly _fifteen_ minutes ago!"

Despite the high-pitched scream, the woman who stepped off of the ramp was the picture of serene calm and composure. Bardock eyed Marron critically for a moment, disregarding her striking blue eyes, gold-spun hair and well-defined figure; he wanted to make sure that she didn't pose a threat to Vegeta.

After a few moments of scrutiny, he deduced that Marron was non-threatening. Being a human female, he was sure that there was no way she was strong enough to bruise a third class Saiyan, but he would still read her power level just to be sure; she wore practical clothes that were aesthetically pleasing without being provocatively so.

**It's the type of clothing a diplomat on a mission should wear**, Nodding absentmindedly, Bardock turned his attention back to the ramp.

"We're terribly sorry for making you wait, your Majesty," Marron said courteously, dipping her head in respect.

**I thought that Chikyuu-jin's were supposed to be an extremely weak race. How can she have no problems standing in ten times Earth's gravity?** Bardock studied Marron cryptically.

"My partner was supposed to keep an eye on the console and notify me when we were about to land, but it appears that he was _distracted_," A spark of anger flickered in her otherwise icy blue eyes, but it quickly disappeared.

At that exact moment, Goten decided to make his entrance, "Come on, Marron! I said I was sorry, all right? Besides, you can't lay all the blame on me since you weren't even _in_ the room when we landed."

Bardock focused his attention on the figure that was making his way down the ramp; when Goten's body and face came into the range of his sharp vision, Bardock stiffened with shock.

"What the hell!" He exclaimed in astonishment; Goten's face was one that nearly matched his own and it was framed by a wild mass of hair that stuck out in every direction.

Opening his mouth, Goten could barely contain his shock, "_Dad?!_"

Startled, Marron's eyes focused on the man standing next to the King.

Mirroring Goten's surprise, she opened her mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Vegeta's loud laugh, "So, Turles _did_ have a brat."

Turning to Bardock, he grinned slyly, "After all, it couldn't be _you_, could it? You don't have the balls to go behind your mate's back!"

Despite all of his self-control, the memory of that specific _incident_ brought a blush to Bardock's sun-kissed cheeks; after Turles' mistress had shown up at his door, Sereri refused to touch him for a whole week!

Gritting his teeth, he glared at Vegeta, "There was no need to bring _that_ up, Vegeta."

Shifting his gaze from one Saiyan to the other, Goten quickly learned that the taller man was not his father, despite the frightening similarities.

However, that only left him bewildered, **Why does this man—this _Saiyan_—look so much like dad? It can't just be a coincidence that their hair, facial structure—pretty much everything in general—is almost exactly the same, can it?**

Exasperated, he ran a hand through his spiky mane, **Good God, I'm just a human and my father's name is not Turtles, whoever _he_ is!**

"Excuse me," Goten interjected hesitantly; being a diplomat, he realized that manners were of the utmost importance. "I'm afraid that you've mistaken me for someone else. My name is Goten and my father's name is Goku."

Scratching his chin contemplatively, he added, "For that matter, I've never even heard of anyone named _Turtles_."

**Except for the Turtle Hermit, Master Roshi, but I doubt that they were referring to him! Yuck!**

Goten gestured to the petite woman standing next to him, "And this is Marron. We're the diplomats from Chikyuu-sei."

Eyeing Goten suspiciously, Bardock corrected him, "It's _Tur-les_."

**I don't know what to make of this boy.** **If he had a tail, I'd be willing to swear to anyone that he's a Saiyan and related to me somehow**, Goten lacked what most Saiyan's prided themselves for having, but Bardock was _still_ convinced that Goten had to _have_ Saiyan blood within him—more importantly, his kin's Saiyan blood.

**The similarities are too overwhelming to ignore or dismiss as a coincidence and humans don't have gravity-defying hair. At least, not without the excessive use of hair gel**, Pausing briefly with his thoughts, Bardock's nose was unable to detect any hint of foreign substances in Goten's spiky mass of black hair. **So, why is he a member of Earth's diplomatic team? **

**He could've lost his tail as punishment or by accident, but that would mean that he somehow managed to flee to Earth**, his conscience offered.

Bardock immediately dismissed the thought, figuring that it would be impossible to sneak off of Vegeta-sei undetected, **Maybe he's a half-breed, but cross-breeding between species is forbidden. Anyone caught could be punished severely, especially the offspring, who's usually killed or taken to the science department for further study. **

He was more than well informed on the few cases of inter-species reproduction that cropped up from time-to-time. However, he'd never heard of a case where a half-breed had gone unnoticed for more than five years and Goten was obviously more than five-years old.

**Judging by human aging standards, he's probably in his late thirties or early forties. The idea of this boy being a half-breed seems ludicrous! **The logical part of his mind couldn't completely discount the theory. **After this meeting is over, I'm going to have to visit Turles. He's the only logical person who could've fathered this boy. **

Bardock knew that his twin brother was the last option—since every other relation he had was dead—and Sereri certainly hadn't had any children without him knowing about it, **Kakarot was our last child, but he died as an infant. Of course, there's always the possibility that Goten is Turles' grandson, but that would mean that Turles already has a child nearly as old as I am; it seems unlikely.**

While it was possible for Turles to have had a child without Bardock knowing about it, due to the strict genetic profiling all Saiyan babies underwent, it was highly unlikely that _two_ blood relations would slip by him unnoticed. Raking his eyes over Goten's features again, Bardock sized him up as a potential threat and turned his scouter on to take a power reading.

After a few moments of beeping, the scouter finally settled on five thousand. Frowning, he turned the device on the human woman who accompanied Goten. While five thousand wasn't exactly all that powerful, it was a power level that a normal human wouldn't possess. Granted, there _were_ few humans who trained themselves to Saiyan standards, but it seemed _unlikely_ that one of them would happen to go into diplomacy.

**Unless they chose Goten because he's a lot stronger than most humans are**, Bardock waited for the scouter to finish reading Marron's power level. **Chikyuu-jin's know that Saiyan's tend to respect strength and Vegeta-sei does have a higher gravity than Chikyuu-sei, so a physically capable diplomat would have its advantages. None-the-less, the fact that this Saiyan-looking boy happens to be stronger than a normal human does tend to support my theory that he isn't human at all. **

_Beep. _Bardock's eyebrows rose in surprise when he read the scouter, **Five thousand... That's the exact same strength as Goten's.**

His eyes glinted suspiciously, **That certainly explains why she has no problem with ten times Earth's normal gravity. Still, it surprises me that a human _female_ diplomat could match even a relatively weak Saiyan like Goten.**

"We obviously have a case of mistaken identity," Marron inserted smoothly; she used all of the charismatic power her voice had to soothe the suspicions about her companion. "I can assure you that I've known Goten my whole life and my father knew both of his parents since they were children. It's simply a strange coincidence that he happens to bear a remarkable resemblance to one or more of your people, Vegeta-sama."

"Hn," Vegeta grunted, glancing at Bardock to see if he had an opinion on the matter; Bardock expressed his thoughts with a simple snort.

"Marron is correct. There is nothing beyond circumstantial evidence to question the boy's identity. Was he was cleared before he came into the system, Bardock?" Vegeta asked mockingly.

"Of course," Bardock admitted grudgingly.

He'd checked the backgrounds and identities of both passengers personally—although he hadn't seen any pictures of either—and everything had cleared through the thorough security system.

Nodding sharply, Vegeta turned to the two diplomats, "You understand that we will want to check Goten's background again."

Both of the diplomats nodded compliantly, confident in the knowledge that Goten couldn't be a Saiyan and the King continued with his speech, "In that case, we welcome you to Vegeta-sei and thank Earth for its kind offer to help us sort out all of this bullshit with Romula-sei."

Bardock wisely chose to remain silent. According to Vegeta, there was no mess to be sorted through; he believed that they had every right to retaliate since they were almost murdered. Bardock didn't completely agree with him on the subject, personally thinking that the King might've gone a little overboard in slaughtering the entire planet.

After all, it might've just been a radical fraction that had tried to murder King Vegeta and his son, Prince Trunks. Of course, he had told Vegeta his theory, but the shorter warrior dismissed Bardock's concern, claiming that when one person made a mistake, everyone paid for it.

Goten ignored Vegeta's impolite remark and bowed in respect, "On behalf of Chikyuu-sei and its people, we are pleased to be of service."

Once he straightened, he grinned broadly and rubbed his stomach, "So, when do we eat?"

Bardock's eyes narrowed suspiciously at the comment, but he chose to say nothing. At the moment, all he could do was watch as Goten continued to confirm his suspicions about his heritage through his words and actions.

"Spoken like a true Saiyan," Vegeta echoed Bardock's thoughts. "Earth must be training better diplomats."

Neither of the men missed the way Marron's elegantly shaped eyebrows rose in surprise; she was quite used to the comment, but she hadn't expected the Saiyan's to accept it as something normal. Noting it and cataloging the information in his small, but growing list of evidence against Goten, Bardock followed the two diplomats as Vegeta led them out of the docking bay.

"My mate, Queen Bulma has had the servants prepare two adjoining suites in the royal quarters for your stay. If you'd like, I can arrange for you to be taken there to rest until it is time to eat."

**I wonder how many times Bulma made him rehearse _that_ line**, Bardock was careful not to let his thoughts show on his face; the last thing he wanted was for Vegeta to become angry with him for making fun of him.

"Your hospitality is indeed generous, Vegeta-sama," Marron smiled warmly. "If it's not too much trouble, my companion and I would definitely appreciate being taken to our rooms."

Vegeta clapped his hands sharply and smirked in satisfaction when a pair of slaves promptly appeared.

"The diplomats from Chikyuu-sei would like to be taken to their rooms," Vegeta made it clear that his statement was not a request.

The pair of A'yokan beings bowed and then gestured for the two new arrivals to follow them.

"Dinner will be served in two hours," Vegeta added, before the slaves led the pair away.

When Goten and Marron vanished through a set of doors, Bardock turned to Vegeta, "I'd like to track down my brother and ask him some questions."

"Of course, Bardock," the shorter Saiyan replied. "You will inform me of any progress you make when we meet again to dine with the diplomatic liaison."

"Of course, Vegeta," Bardock smirked, bowing as he did so.

Turning on his heel, he swiftly walked towards another set of doors, knowing where he would find his brother, **I definitely have some questions I want to take up with Turles. They start with a certain diplomat who has a striking resemblance to our family and end with an unclassified female last seen in his and Radditz's company. Before this day is over, I _will_ know the truth.**

And that was enough to bring a smile to Bardock's mouth.

* * *


	11. History of Another Time

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

------------------------------------------------------

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Oozaru: A Japanese name for the giant monkey form Saiyan's transform into when the full moon is in effect.

2. Kami: God.

------------------------------------------------------

**Sidestory:** **History of Another Time**

When Pan used the prototype time machine, she intended to travel to the past, but something went wrong. Instead of ending up in a place where no one would know her, she was sent to an alternate present where Vegeta-sei was never blown up, her extended family was still alive and so on and so forth. What events led to this timeline's creation? How is the history of this time different and how is it similar to the reality that Pan came from?

It all started long ago...

In the last few years of Frieza's reign, few planets were destroyed because he was trying to deal with the growing problem of the rebellious Saiyan's. Therefore, records of the planets were lost or poorly kept; Earth was on the list of planets that was supposed to be destroyed. Taken from his mother soon after birth and placed in a pod with a course set for the small, blue-green world, an infant Saiyan named Kakarot was assigned the task of clearing the planet of its inhabitants, since the people of Earth were relatively weak.

Upon landing on the exotic world, the baby was discovered by a kind, old martial arts master. He took the child in and raised him as his own, giving him the name of Son, Goku. Unfortunately, the child was wild and violent; everything Son, Gohan—the martial arts master—did for Goku seemed to have no effect on him, until fate took a hand in _that_ particular matter.

For some unknown reason, Goku fell off a cliff and suffered a severe head injury, causing him to lose all traces of his former identity and nature; this left an innocent, naïve boy with an odd, fuzzy tail behind and as far as Gohan was concerned, that was the end of the matter... until the first time Goku laid eyes on the full moon.

Gohan witnessed his adoptive grandson change from a child to a monster under the full moon's influence; he barely lasted through the night as the wild oozaru laid waste to everything around him. However, when the moon set, Goku returned to normal without any memory of the incident. From that day on, Gohan warned the child to never look at the full moon. And so, peace continued for a few years, until Goku accidentally glanced at the full moon one night and transformed once more.

In his mindless rage, the transformed boy stepped on his loving grandfather and killed the old man without even realizing it. When the transformation ended and he woke up the next morning, Goku was heartbroken to find his beloved grandfather dead. Years passed and the boy continued to live on his own in the wild, until he met a human girl one fateful day; that human girl intended to prove that there was a myth that was actually true.

Seven magical balls lay scattered around the world and when they were gathered together, a mighty dragon would be summoned and grant someone one wish. As it so happened, Gohan left his adoptive grandson one of the seven magical balls and Bulma's _Dragon Radar_ led her to Goku's home. They became friends and joined together on the quest to find the seven magical balls, making other friends in the process.

Towards the end of that first hunt, Goku, Bulma, and their new friends, Yamcha, Puar, and Oolong were all captured by a blue midget named Pilaf, who was also determined to use the dragon balls to grant his own wish. During the night, while the five were imprisoned and waiting to die, Goku happened to look up at the full moon and transformed for the third time in his life.

He broke free of the prison and destroyed the castle that he and his friends had been held in; he would've killed his friends in his mindless rage had they not cut his tail off. Goku returned to his normal form afterwards and his tail never grew back, but Bulma realized that it'd been Goku who'd killed his own grandfather; she vowed to never tell him the truth because she knew it would've broken his heart to know that he'd killed the only family he'd ever known. And so, Goku grew up thinking that he was just like everyone else, except that he'd once had a tail.

Time passed and he was taken in by his grandfather's own master, Master Roshi. Together, he and his newfound friend—Krillin—participated in the Tenkaichi Budokai, where the young Saiyan made it all the way to the finals—he almost didn't make it past one of his earlier matches, where a dinosaur-like opponent trapped him in an odd, gummy substance, but through sheer determination and quick thinking, he bit his way through the bonds and beat the other competitor.

His opponent in the finals—an old man named _Jackie Chun_—managed to defeat him, even though the match was a close one; no one noticed the full moon in the sky and without his tail, Goku didn't change into an oozaru. Life continued on and the Saiyan boy grew, enjoying his many adventures of becoming a stronger person.

Meanwhile, Earth and the Saiyan who was sent to conquer it were forgotten by the Planet Trade Organization, since many of the records were damaged and lost; no one followed up on Kakarot's progress and his family naturally assumed that he'd died. After Goku had been sent to Earth, the Saiyan's rebelled and sought to end Frieza's reign.

In order to quell the uprisings on Vegeta-sei, Frieza killed King Vegeta and placed his young son, Prince Vegeta, on the throne; he'd toyed with the idea of destroying the planet then and there, but changed his mind on a whim, since the Saiyan's were still too weak to pose a threat. With the death of their stubborn King, Frieza hoped to influence and manipulate Prince Vegeta into continuing to do his will.

This worked out well for fifteen years and although he was young, Vegeta was not stupid; he allowed Frieza to manipulate him as he secretly trained to become stronger and plotted against him—he wanted to become strong enough to defeat the lizard tyrant, so that his people would be free and his father's death would not be in vain. Upon reaching adulthood, Vegeta still wasn't strong enough to stand a chance against Frieza, even though he was—by far—the strongest Saiyan on Vegeta-sei.

However, his pride led him to do a stupid thing and during one of Frieza's visits to Vegeta-sei, the young King launched his attack, determined to rid the universe of the being that had plagued his people all their life. Vegeta did surprisingly well in his attack and he nearly defeated Frieza, even after he'd transformed two times; the constant training and battles that Vegeta had undergone his entire life increased his strength to the point where he was a threat to Frieza's continued existence.

Unfortunately, it was Frieza's last transformation that was the young King's undoing. As strong as he was, Vegeta was no match for the Ice-jin's final form; he was defeated with ease, but instead of simply finishing his victim off, Frieza chose to toy with Vegeta. While Frieza gathered the ki for his final attack, he mocked his fallen foe, claiming that Vegeta was to blame for the impending destruction of Vegeta-sei.

As soon as Frieza spoke those words, something within Vegeta snapped and a transformation unlike any other took place; his black, flame-like hair changed into a bright golden color and his dark eyes changed into a pupil-less sea green color. With this transformation came incredible power and Vegeta launched another attack towards Frieza, determined to destroy the threat that burdened his people once and for all; the battle turned in his favor and he overpowered his adversary with ease.

With Frieza's death, the Planet Trade Organization quickly fell apart, making it unnecessary to exterminate the life of a planet. Instead, Vegeta chose to make a _peaceful_ contract with other civilizations, opening up trade and cultural growth. Of course, his _peaceful _idea meant that the Saiyan's wouldn't slaughter any of the planets for the hell of it; instead, they would use their physical strength to _persuade_ the worlds that they encountered to cooperate with their King's peaceful idea, since they were a war-like race that loved to battle.

Soon after Vegeta's idea, the Saiyan's re-discovered Earth, focusing on Chikyuu-sei and their superior technology. As part of a diplomatic contingent sent to hammer out the details of the treaty between Earth and Vegeta-sei, Bulma Briefs boarded a ship and traveled to the Saiyan home world, where she met King Vegeta. When all was said and done, Vegeta took Bulma as his mate and she became the planet's Queen.

Under her influence, relationships with other worlds quickly improved and the Saiyan's decided to settle down to spar amongst themselves, rather than wage war and conquer planets. Earth was declared a _safe_ planet, where no Saiyan's were allowed to live and few were allowed to visit, unless they had proper identification and were kept under strict surveillance; Vegeta figured that it would be all too tempting for a tail-less Saiyan to try to live on Earth—with their superior fighting ability, they could easily cause a lot of damage before they could be captured.

During the time that Bulma traveled to Vegeta-sei, Goku married Chi-Chi and produced a son; he named him after his adoptive grandfather, Gohan. Yamcha—feeling that the woman had a right to know—informed Chi-Chi of Goku's heritage, so she was well prepared for the fuzzy brown tail attached to the backside of her newborn son.

The doctor who helped deliver Gohan was a good friend of the family and complied with Chi-Chi's request to remove her son's tail, promising not to tell a soul. They knew that if anyone ever found out that Goku was a Saiyan, it'd surely mean his death; Goku still had no idea that he wasn't human.

Gohan grew up believing in his humanity and things continued peacefully for several years. Chi-Chi made sure that Gohan got a good education, but Goku convinced her that fighting had to be Gohan's main priority. Completely unaware his plea's irony, he claimed that if a rogue Saiyan ever came by, Gohan would need to be able to defend himself.

Goku's past came back to haunt him in the form of two deadly androids one day; numbered _Nineteen_ and _Twenty_, they were Dr. Gero's creations and in a bid for revenge against the one who'd defeated the Red Ribbon Army, Android_ Twenty_—Dr. Gero—attacked Goku's family and killed Chi-Chi. In their grief-stricken rage, both Goku and Gohan underwent a strange transformation, where their hair turned yellow and their turned eyes a solid blue-green color.

In the process of their transformation, they both gained a tremendous amount of power; Goku later attributed his odd transformation to be the same as what happened to his friend, Launch, whenever she sneezed, except that their transformations could be controlled and didn't rely on sneezes. With their Super Saiyan strength, Goku and Gohan quickly destroyed Android_ Nineteen_. Unfortunately, Android_ Twenty_ escaped and since he had no detectable ki, they soon lost him; that was the last time they ever heard of Android_ Twenty_.

Unbeknownst to them, Dr. Gero returned to his lab and re-activated two other androids he'd created, despite the fact that they were unpredictable and had caused him a lot of trouble in the past. To his dismay, Androids _Seventeen_ and _Eighteen_ destroyed the controlling device he'd created to keep them in line; afterwards, they rebelled and killed him. Knowing that they'd been created to destroy, the twins chose to thumb their noses at their creator in an ultimate gesture of defiance—they chose to live peaceful lives.

Not knowing that Dr. Gero was dead, Goku and Gohan trained almost feverishly, choosing to put off a search for the dragon balls; they knew that Chi-Chi would not be safe until the android was defeated and to do that, they would need to learn to control their new forms. Traveling to Kami's Lookout, they received permission from Kami to train in the room of Space and Time, where they spent the better part of a day learning to use their Super Saiyan power to its fullest potential.

While the two were training, a visitor from another timeline appeared—a creature named Cell—searching for the two beings who would make him complete; Androids _Seventeen_ and _Eighteen_. When Goku and Gohan completed their training in the room of Space and Time, they discovered a new ki on the planet and promptly took off after it. Upon arrival, they found Cell and Androids _Seventeen_ and _Eighteen _locked in deadly battle.

At first, they didn't know which side to fight on, but Cell's natural tendency to gloat revealed his true intentions and Goku and Gohan attacked before the imperfect being could absorb either of his victims. In Cell's imperfect state, he was no match for the two Super Saiyan's and was eventually beaten. After the battle's inevitable conclusion, the four quickly departed before authorities—sent to investigate the overly high ki sources—could arrive.

Departing, Gohan and Goku decided to use Bulma's _Dragon Radar_ to collect the dragon balls needed to bring Chi-Chi back, whereas the android twins decided to find a place to live in peace; they made vague promises to contact each other again. After Chi-Chi's resurrection, the Son family celebrated with a huge feast, inviting their friends over to celebrate with them.

Surprisingly, Androids _Seventeen_ and _Eighteen_ showed up to the event, though no one ever figured out how they found out about it and that night, Goten was conceived. When Goten was born, Chi-Chi went through the same process of concealing his heritage from his father and the world in general; she felt guilty about hiding the truth from Goku, but the Saiyan was a little _too_ careless with information. Therefore, Goku continued to remain ignorant of his ancestry.

Sometime after the get-together, Krillin and Android _Eighteen_ married and they eventually produced a blonde-haired baby girl named Marron. Gohan was sent to a high school in Satan City; the city had been named after the reigning World Tournament champion, who'd also somehow managed to claim credit for Cell's disappearance.

While attending school and trying to keep a low profile, Gohan met Hercule's daughter, Videl Satan and she eventually became his wife. Together, they conceived a baby girl named Pan. However, before Videl married Gohan, Chi-Chi let her in on the secret of her husband-to-be's Saiyan heritage and when Pan was born, her tail was removed before Gohan found out.

Elsewhere in the universe, Bulma had two children named Trunks and Bra. At first, Vegeta resisted fathering half-breed children, since half-breeds were known for their inferiority and pathetic strength. However, through scientific means, Bulma provided Vegeta with the proof that the exact opposite would occur in a Saiyan/Chikyuu-jin cross; the offspring would be stronger than either of their parent's race and Vegeta eventually consented, producing an heir to the royal throne.

However, he patently refused to believe that his Demi-Saiyan children could possibly achieve the status of a Super Saiyan and the children grew up believing that such was impossible for their kind.

Goku continued to lead a quiet life in the woods; he trained in remote areas to avoid attention and was sometimes joined by his two sons. Gohan became a professor at the Orange Star College, while Videl occasionally helped the police out with criminal activity, which was where their daughter, Pan, chose to serve. Goten and Marron joined the diplomatic corporation, where they began dating even as they became one of the best diplomatic teams in their department.

Since Marron had learned some martial arts from both of her parents, she and Goten could be found sparring together. Due to their skill and strength, the two were often given the more dangerous assignments and throughout all of this time, neither the Son males nor the authorities ever realized that these three men had Saiyan blood in their veins.

Videl eventually told Pan that she was a Saiyan, so the girl would be prepared should she ever bear children, but that was where the secret ended. Perhaps Kami—or a being with more power—was looking over this family. Then again, no one will ever know, will they...?

* * *

Facts from the Alternate Universe;

1. Goku never died, so he never learned _Kaioken_ from King Kai.

2. Bulma left before Goku married Chi-Chi, so she has no idea that he has any offspring.

3. Goku never left for Namek, so he never picked up the _heart virus_.

4. Goku never went to Yardrat, so he never learned _Instant Transmission_.

5. Piccolo never merged with Kami, so no one ever met Dende.

6. The Dragon Balls only have one wish.

7. Majin Buu—and related characters—never show up.

8. GT does not occur in this time line.


	12. Opposite Spectrums

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Kami: God.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 11:** **Opposite Spectrums**

Goten quickly learned that the slaves who were currently escorting him and Marron to their bedrooms had no names; only numbers.

"_It's a curse of the A'yokans_," 2617's voice rang in his head clearly.

**What a strange race**, Goten mused thoughtfully, expecting to hear one of the exotic creatures to say something.

However, when he noticed the vast silence in the corridor and no smart comebacks coming from 3392, Goten lifted his dark eyes and swallowed thickly.

"Oh, shit," he whispered, stunned; Marron and the A'yokan beings were gone.

**x-X-x **

Bra was beyond furious. She walked at a leisurely pace back to her room, clad in a towel.

Thinking back to what her father had told her hours ago, she scowled, "_You will not participate in your brother's tournament. By then, your mate will be Toma._"

**I refuse to mate with that—that _asshole_ of a guard—** Bra growled. **—And if that _traitor_ thinks that I'm mating with Toma, he's sadly mistaken.**

The hairs on the back of her neck began to stand on end and Bra suddenly realized that something out of place. That something was—

**Well, hello, beautiful**, her mouth curled into a slick grin.

Adding an extra sway to her walk, Bra sauntered towards the spiky haired Saiyan.

"Hi," she purred, her cheeks dimpling.

Goten was unaware that his eyes were glued to Bra's hips until she spoke. Visibly gulping when she stopped in front of him, he flushed and averted his eyes away.

**Oh, a shy guy. How _cute_**, Bra's smile quickly turned into a smirk.

"What are you doing in the private sector? You should know this area is off-limits to—What are you anyway?" Bra asked curiously, studying Goten's choice of attire. "You're not wearing Saiyan armor and you certainly don't look human, so why are you wearing these strange articles of clothing?"

When Goten didn't answer her question, Bra ran her fingernail across his broad chest and smiled teasingly, "Well, what are you doing here? This area is off-limits to people like you."

"Wh–what?" Goten asked, flushing dully.

"I'm your Princess and you will listen to me, _boy_," Bra barked haughtily; her voice softened considerably. "Now, tell me, what are you doing here?"

"I–ah, got lost," Goten answered, embarrassment coloring his cheeks.

"Oh?" She purred, her eyes growing dark. "Interesting. Come with me and I'll give you the directions that you need, boy."

"I–ah, that's okay. I'm sure that I can find my way around," Goten stammered nervously.

Her blue eyes narrowed, "I am your Princess and you will listen to me. Now, come."

Deciding to play along with her, Goten nodded, **This girl is crazy!**

"Yes, Princess," he murmured lowly.

Inwardly shivering at the tone Goten used, Bra smiled victoriously, "Good boy. Follow me."

**I will not mate Toma, father. You will see that I am not one to lie down and take orders. When you see that I've mated some strange Saiyan that I hardly know, what will you say then?**

Grinning with excitement, she tugged on Goten's arm, "Hurry, I need to get dressed."

"Of course, Princess," Goten complied, swallowing thickly.

Letting go of Goten's arm, she indicated that he should follow her. Not bothering to see if he was following her or not, Bra turned a corner that would lead her to her bedroom. When she reached her bedroom, her fingers hovered over the doorknob hesitantly.

Gnawing her bottom lip, she thought, **Do I really want this? Do I really want to mate with some Saiyan I hardly know?**

Shivering visibly when she felt Goten's warm body press against her back, she was surprised when his long, lean fingers brushed the tendrils of her hair away from her shoulder tenderly.

"Would you like me to open the door for you, Princess?" Goten asked, his breath ghosting Bra's highly sensitive ear.

**What the hell am I doing? I should be trying to find Marron and the A'yokan beings**, Goten inwardly thought.

**So, why aren't you?** A nasty, little voice asked slyly from deep within his head.

**I–I don't know**, he answered truthfully, breathing in sharply when Bra turned to face him; her knuckles were beginning to turn white from the way she was clutching the towel she wore.

Slanting Goten a look from the fringe of her lashes, she asked huskily, "Do you like what you see?"

Goten stared at the blue-haired beauty in front of him. He'd never seen such an odd and yet alluring hair color before, nor had he ever seen such beautiful, bright eyes with a mouth that—

He swallowed hard as his eyes fell to the soft pink flesh of her lips. He'd come across a lot of beautiful women over the years, but none were quite as alluring as the one in front of him. It was subtle, but Goten could feel his body awakening for the first time in his life. It just wasn't awakening, though; the tingle he felt was something he hadn't felt since he'd been with Marron and it felt good.

"Yes," he murmured, his eyes growing dark. "I like what I see, Princess."

The corners of her mouth quirked, "Good."

And then, when Bra loosened the towel she wore and let it drop to her feet, Goten couldn't help thinking that maybe getting lost was really a blessing in disguise.

**x-X-x**

Bardock knew that he had two hours before he was expected to show up for the meal with the diplomats and he intended to use those hours well. He needed to talk to Turles and Radditz, but since his brother had contact with the elusive woman that every Saiyan was searching for _and_ a possible relation to the suspicious diplomat from Earth, he planned to track him down first.

As he walked down the hallway leading to the first class training facility, he was grateful that his brother was predictable; he nearly smiled when he walked into the first class sparring room and saw his brother's familiar face furrowed in concentration as he sparred with some other Saiyan male that Bardock didn't quite recognize. Turles had the upper hand in the battle as he easily dodged a fist aimed for his gut—he returned the favor with an elbow jab to his opponent's back. The two men continued to exchange blows, unaware that Bardock and spectators alike were studying their movements.

**Arrogant bastard**, Bardock scowled when he noticed a subtle change to Turles' movements.

He was no longer taking his sparring partner seriously; instead, he was simply toying with him, **One of these days, you're going to face an opponent who'll use your confidence against you. Where will you be then, brother, dear?**

Bardock smiled cynically as he inwardly answered his own question, **In a regeneration tank, of course.**

Tired of watching his brother mess around with a man who obviously couldn't keep up with him, Bardock folded his arms across his chest and inhaled slowly.

"Turles!" He barked sharply.

Turles' concentration was completely broken and his head snapped towards the voice in a startled reflex. The Saiyan who'd been sparring with him took advantage of his momentary distraction and swiftly landed a powerful punch to his jaw. Turles' head snapped back from the impact of the blow and he staggered towards the ground. Lifting his head, he wiped his mouth and the sight of his blood enraged him further.

"You fucking asshole!" He snarled.

Faster than anyone could see, his fist rammed into his unfortunate opponent's belly; the man was sent flying across the room and into the wall with enough force to leave a considerable dent. Without another glance towards his fallen enemy, Turles stalked over to where his brother stood.

"You're a bastard. Do you take pleasure knowing that you broke my concentration?" He sneered when he was inches away from Bardock's face.

Bardock shrugged indifferently, "So? What's your point? You should've been focused on the fight."

Unfolding his arms, he placed his open palm on Turles' chest and pushed firmly to get the other man's face out of his own, "And I wouldn't toss that particular insult around too lightly, you—you tramp!"

"Fuck off, little brother—" He batted Bardock's arm away from his chest. "—Unless you have nothing better to do than interrupt _my_ training!"

Bardock inwardly seethed at the filial reference, even though it was true, "I _do_ have better things to do with my time, Turles! Unfortunately, I can't do any of them until I talk to you."

Glaring at the other Saiyan's in the training room menacingly, he barked, "_Leave, now!_"

Much to his satisfaction, the room quickly emptied of its occupants, leaving only himself and his brother. As soon as the last of the first class soldiers filed out, Turles grabbed a towel and started wiping the sweat off of his well-muscled body.

"Well, what do you want?" He asked irately. "Surely, you have other things to do than bother m—"

"Shut up," Bardock cut in abruptly, his voice calm; Turles didn't bother to object. "I'm here to talk to you about your fucking habits, in the very literal sense of the term."

Turles blinked, caught off-guard.

"Do you want to know what I saw today, Turles?" Bardock asked, continuing before his brother could interject with a sarcastic comment. "Vegeta and I met the diplomats from Chikyuu-sei today. One of them was a normal, Earthling woman, granted that she was a lot stronger than most, but she was still human. The other—"

Pausing for emphasis, he carefully studied Turles' expression, "—Was a Saiyan. He wouldn't admit it, but there were too many Saiyan traits in him to believe that he was a _normal_ human being. In fact, if he had a tail, he'd have no trouble passing for one of us."

"So, you've found a Saiyan exile pretending to be human. Good for you," Turles exclaimed sarcastically. "What I want to know is, what does all of this have to do with me and my—how did you put it?"

Turles pretended to feign ignorance, "Oh, yes, my fucking habits. Tell me, little brother, what does this _boy_ have to do with my fucking habits? Hmm?"

Narrowing his eyes angrily, Bardock hissed, "That _boy_ could've been the spitting image of _you_ a few decades ago, Turles."

When Turles' eyes widened in surprise, Bardock smirked, "The boy's hair, his eyes, his basic build—there's no mistaking it, Turles. I'd swear on our father's soul that the boy's related to us, which is where we get into your sex life. There are only three males left in our family. This means that it was either you, Radditz or me who has been sleeping around carelessly and not keeping tabs on the women involved."

**Meaning that it was _you_ who sired Goten, since we both know that Radditz and I wouldn't crawl into some nameless woman's bed**, Bardock inwardly scoffed.

However, a part of him was beginning to doubt that Goten was Turles' son, **Perhaps, he's actually Turles' grandson. After all, Goten claimed that some man named _Goku_ is his father and his diplomatic partner did say that she knew him all her life... but that would mean that there's at least one other Saiyan living on Earth undetected.**

Bardock frowned, **Either something is seriously wrong with the planet's security or these Saiyan's are just lucky. Either way, they need to be tracked down and killed.**

Turles balled his hands into tight fists, "Are you saying that I haven't been keeping track of the women I bed? Is that it?!"

When Bardock didn't answer him, Turles' eyes narrowed hatefully, "I'm _always_ careful when I bed a woman. In case you're wondering, I don't _want_ any offspring! I won't accuse you of being this boy's father, since your mate has you so whipped that you don't know what another cunt looks like, but maybe Radditz—"

"You know that Radditz can't even _look_ at another woman since Sala died, Turles!" Bardock sneered.

"Fine, whatever you say, brother," Turles conceded, rubbing the bridge of his nose wearily. "I'll ask around and find out if any of my old bed mates had a child. How old did you say this boy was?"

"Actually, he's not really a boy—" Bardock began hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" Turles asked suspiciously.

"I mean that I don't know how old he is exactly, but I'd say that Goten's in his late thirties or early forties," Bardock answered; Turles gaped at him.

"_Are you serious?!_" He asked incredulously. "You're unbelievable! How do you expect me to believe that some _man_ is my child when he's almost as old as I am?!"

"Just do it!" Bardock growled threateningly.

Turles glared at him, "Fine, I'll do it! Are you happy?"

**Well, at least I got him to admit that it might've been him who sired Goten, so now he'll start asking questions. One question down, one to go.**

"Not yet. I need to know something else," Unconsciously, Bardock mirrored Turles' action and lifted a hand to rub the bridge of his nose; he could practically feel a headache coming on since he knew that Turles was going to give him a hard time answering his questions.

"I'll tell you anything as long as you leave me alone, little brother," Turles replied irately.

Bardock glared at him and they both became aware of the fact that they were both mirroring each other's actions.

Turles snatched his hand away from his face and scowled, "Just make it quick!"

Deciding that the best thing to do was to be frank, Bardock asked, "An unclassified female was last seen in your company. Do you know where she is?"

**x-X-x**

"Not that I mean to pry or anything, but _Pan_ doesn't exactly sound like a _Saiyan_ name," Sereri murmured as she turned on the faucet to wash the dishes.

Pan leaned back in her chair, hoping that her stomach would settle soon. Placing a newly cleaned dish in a rack next to the wall, Sereri glanced at Pan, waiting for her to speak.

"That's because it's not," Pan answered; she felt like she could trust Sereri. "It's a human name."

An irritated huff brought her attention back to Radditz, who was glaring at her for some odd reason, **What's he mad at? Doesn't his mother have a right to know who I am since she gave me clothes and a place to sleep? God, he's such an ass!**

"Human?" Sereri asked, startled. "Why would you have a human name, Pan?"

"It's because she's a Demi-Saiyan," Radditz scowled at her; Pan stuck her tongue out at him and nearly laughed out loud when he growled at her menacingly.

"She's part Saiyan and part Chikyuu-jin," he elaborated with a small huff.

Dishes momentarily forgotten, Sereri turned to face the pair, a look of surprise on her face, "You mean, like the Prince and Princess?"

"Actually, I'm only a quarter Saiyan," Pan admitted, folding her arms arrogantly. "I got my Saiyan blood from grandpa Goku."

Her face softened when she thought back to the last time she'd seen her grandfather, **Kami, I miss him so much.**

"Goku is not a Saiyan name," Radditz stated firmly.

Pan's face hardened once more and she narrowed her eyes threateningly, "Are you calling me a liar?! For your information, Goku is the name he grew up with. It's not his birth name."

Radditz arched a skeptical brow and crossed his own arms.

"Then, is he purposely hiding his identity? Is he a criminal, Pan?" He taunted mercilessly, trying to elicit an unguarded reaction from her by rousing her ire.

Briefly glancing at his mother, he tried to communicate with one look that she should not interfere with his line of questioning.

"_My grandfather's not a criminal!_" Pan shouted, anger dancing hotly in her eyes.

"Then what is his Saiyan name?" Radditz asked, his gaze challenging. "If he's not a criminal, there should be no problem in telling me his Saiyan name, right?"

The smirk on his face broadened as he sprang the trap of words he'd been weaving, **Either her grandfather's a criminal that needs to be extradited from Chikyuu-sei for proper punishment or he's simply an exile with nowhere else to go. Once I know his name, all I have to do is look it up in father's main computer bank.**

"His Saiyan name is _Kakarot_, you judgmental prick," Pan hissed, anger swelling in her ki.

She didn't know what she wanted to do more—strangle Radditz or punch him hard enough to dislocate his jaw—but she knew that if he insinuated one more thing about her grandfather, she'd make him wish that he'd never been born.

_Crash!_

Pan's attention was yanked roughly away from Radditz by the sound of a shattering plate. Startled by the noise, her head jerked in the direction of the disturbance to find Sereri staring at her in shock, her face two shades paler than it normally was. At her feet were the broken shards of one of the plates she'd been drying with the towel she was clutching in one of her shaky fists.

"Kakarot?! Your grandfather's Saiyan name is Kakarot?" Sereri's voice was calm and even, belying the state of shock that her outward demeanor presented.

Ire forgotten, Pan blinked owlishly at the Saiyan woman for a moment as she tried to puzzle out the meaning of her reaction.

"Yes," she answered warily.

Curiosity got the better of her and she risked asking a question of her own, "Why are you—"

"_Impossible!_" Radditz roared, slamming his fist on the table as he glared at Pan. "_Kakarot is dead!_ There is absolutely no way he can be _your_ grandfather, Pan. You're either lying, misinformed or—"

"_Be quiet, Radditz!_" Sereri barked, her voice taking on a knife-like quality that cut through her son's protests.

Radditz promptly shut his mouth with an audible click; he wouldn't bother arguing with his mother when she used that tone of voice—not if he wanted to live a long and healthy life anyway.

Seeing that Radditz obeyed her order, she turned her steely gaze towards Pan; she involuntarily shrunk away from Sereri's gaze.

"Your grandfather's Saiyan name is Kakarot?" She echoed, her voice a mixture of confusion, curiosity and...

**Is that I _hope_ I sense in her voice? **Nodding her head uncertainly, Pan opened her mouth to speak, but before she could do so, Sereri cut her off, "And you said that my husband—the man who brought you here last night—reminded you of your grandfather?"

Wondering where Sereri was going with her line of questioning, Pan nodded again, her tail twitching anxiously behind her; Sereri's piercing gaze was rather disconcerting.

"Yes, he had grandpa's spiky hair—" She made gestures with her hands to indicate how the spikes were placed on Goku's head. "—And his face looked a lot like grandpa's..."

Frowning, Pan tried to picture Bardock's face more clearly; her eyes suddenly grew bright, "Oh! The only difference between your husband and my grandfather is the fact that grandpa doesn't have a scar on his cheek."

A soft exhalation from Sereri drew her attention back to the other woman.

Pan furrowed her brow in puzzlement at the introspective look on the wild-haired woman's face, "How do you know grandpa Go—I mean, _Kakarot_?"

Sereri's eyes came back into focus and she tilted her head to the side, looking at Pan as though she'd never seen her before. After a few moments of studying her, the older woman nodded to herself—as though in confirmation of some inner thought—and then turned her attention back to Pan's question.

"Kakarot—" she began, her voice wavering. "—Is my son."

Gaping at her, Pan's eyes grew wide, **_Wh–what?!_**

* * *


	13. One Step Forward

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Kami: God.

2. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 12:** **One Step Forward**

It took Turles more than a moment to understand what his brother was asking him and then it took him another moment to remember his encounter with Pan.

When he did recall his encounter with her, he scowled darkly, "And what if I do know where she is? _Why _do_ you _care?"

An annoyed look flashed across Bardock's face, "I don't have_ time _for your stupid, childish games, Turles! The King ordered me to track down that female, so that I can bring her to him _immediately!_ Just tell me what I want to know or I'll tell him that you _refused _to cooperate with his commands. Do I make myself clear?"

Turles repressed a growl; he couldn't see any way to get out of answering his brother's questions—at least, not with the royal authority he had just invoked.

While it was easy for him to tell Trunks what Pan had done to him, it was harder to tell his brother the same thing, **Oh, hell. He will never let me live this down...**

Considering that he was one of the strongest Saiyans on the planet, he knew that it would be humiliating to reveal that a woman—weakling or not—had actually managed to _bruise_ him by landing two blows on him. However, as strong as he was, Vegeta was both his King and his superior in strength, skill and experience. Disobeying his orders was simply not an option...

**... Unless you count torture **_**and**_** a rather **_**painful**_** death to be an option**, he grimaced.

"Fine! Ask your damn questions," he said, biting off each word angrily.

**Finally. Now, I'm getting somewhere**, Bardock visibly relaxed when he realized that Turles was going to cooperate with him. **Though, I'm sure if Vegeta didn't want to find this woman so badly, Turles would have told me to go fuck off.**

Shaking that thought off, the scarred Saiyan got down to business, "It was reported that a single, unclassified female took out at least forty first-class Saiyans in one of the training facilities and that you and Radditz were the last people to have contact with her. I want to know what happened."

Grumbling under his breath, Turles resigned himself to the inevitable, "I didn't notice her when she first came in, but when she started insulting the other soldiers who were sparring, they challenged _and_ attacked her. She took them all out with ease and since my own sparring partner got distracted, I knocked him out and decided to go see what all the fuss was about. I watched her quickly take down the rest of the warriors and I have to admit that she was pretty good for a woman. You know, there's _nothing _sexier than a woman who can kick some serious ass..."

The lecherous smirk on his face revealed quite clearly what he was thinking about, "And oh, her _smell_! Kami, I've never smelled anything as good as that woman in my life! It was enough to make me want to—"

"I get the point, Turles!" Bardock interrupted irately.

**Why does he always think that I want to listen to his sexual fantasies?**

He scoffed, "So, she smelled good, you wanted to bed her and then what happened?"

Sighing at the missed opportunity to annoy his brother, Turles continued, "Well, I _had_ every intention of taking her, but to do that, I knew that I'd have to make her a little more... docile."

He smirked, "So, I challenged her myself."

This was the part that Turles was dreading—the part that would do the most damage to his ego, **Well, I don't really have to tell him **_**all **_**of the details...**

"We didn't get very far in the fight before _your _meddling son interfered. He was going on about having orders from the Queen to escort Pan Son back to her room. Naturally, I—"

"Wait, did you just say _Son_? Pan _Son_?" Bardock demanded, suddenly tense and on edge.

**This **_**can't **_**be possible. She's been causing trouble before the diplomats from Earth arrived and there haven't been any ships from Chikyuu-sei here in years. Plus, all of the ships from Earth are usually thoroughly inspected, so that there are no stowaways aboard...**

Giving his brother an odd look, Turles nodded his head, "That's what Radditz said her name was; Pan Son."

A slight frown creased his features; he distinctly remembered Radditz telling him not to speak of the fact that she was a half-breed...

**... But, the King wants to know about her and he's higher than the Queen...**

"He told me that she was a half-breed, Bardock. A human-Saiyan hybrid," Turles elaborated.

A sharp intake of breath was the only sign that Bardock gave concerning the importance of the information his brother was giving him, **It **_**would**_** make sense. Saiyan and human hybrids are actually stronger than either parent race normally produces. That **_**would**_** explain why she was strong enough to take down so many first class warriors. But... just how strong is she?**

"Turles, how would you assess her strength? Is she weaker than you or is she stronger than you? Obviously, she's at least a first class Saiyan in strength, but I would like to have a clearer idea in case I have to fight her," Bardock explained.

"What does it matter how strong she is?" Turles snapped nastily. "You're the third strongest Saiyan on this planet, remember? It's not like any _woman_ could stand up to you, no matter _how_ strong she is!"

The matter of Bardock's strength was a sore spot for Turles, but not as sore as admitting that Pan had injured him during their short spar, **Tch. As if I'd **_**ever**_** admit that there's a female stronger than me...**

"It matters because I want to know what I'm up against!" Bardock shouted. "Now, answer the damn question!"

Bristling under the power and authority his brother had over him, Turles silently plotted to find some way to get even for the humiliation he was about to endure.

**Maybe I could arrange to have Leeka visit him again**, he thought slyly, a smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth. **Only this time, she'll be naked.**

The image of what Sereri would do to Bardock after a naked woman showed up asking for him was enough to bolster Turles' spirits to where he could answer honestly.

"I don't know if she's stronger than me. Like I said, we didn't fight long. It was only long enough for her to give me this—" he then pointed to the bruise on his jaw; Bardock blinked, wondering how he had missed the purple discoloration that marred his brother's face. "—_And_ this..."

Gritting his teeth, he lifted his shirt, revealing a similar bruise on his ribcage.

Bardock scanned the bruises thoroughly before a slow smirk spread across his tanned face.

**Oh, hell, this is it**, Turles thought sourly. _**This**_** is the beginning of the end. **

To his surprise, though, Bardock's next words were not that of ridicule, "Thank you for your cooperation, Turles."

The smile on Bardock's face promised beyond any doubt that this was not the last time Turles would hear of this conversation. Somehow, Turles knew that his brother would find the worst possible moment to bring up such an embarrassing subject...

**... And it'll probably be in front of a large audience with highly important people in attendance. _Great_.**

"Is there anything else you want to ask me, brother, dear?" Turles asked stiffly, even though all he wanted to do was to get away from Bardock.

He also needed to start looking for the woman he might have had a child with, but at the moment, that was of less importance to him than arranging something with Leeka.

The smile left Bardock's face as the younger man suddenly became serious, "Do you know where Pan Son is now?"

Turles shook his head slowly, "The Prince showed up, saying that he would escort her back to her room. As far as I know, he did. No one has seen her since."

**Hmm, just because Turles doesn't know where she is doesn't mean that Radditz doesn't. Come to think of it, why hasn't Radditz reported this situation to anyone and how much does he know about this unclassified female?** Bardock wondered suspiciously.

"Well, this isn't good. If she's that strong, then there aren't many men on this planet who could stop her—not on their own anyway. I'll need to talk to the Captain of the Guard and have him organize his men into larger groups," he murmured to no one in particular.

A thought struck him, "Aw, shit! That means I probably won't have any time to talk to Radditz before I need to be at the banquet hall."

"Banquet hall?" Turles cocked his head to the side; his brother didn't often dine with royalty and even then, the banquet hall was rarely used, except for large official functions.

"Damn it! I nearly forgot!" He cursed out loud. "That dinner with the diplomats is in an hour and I'm supposed to be there."

"I guess that means you'll actually have to take a bath then," Bardock laughed mockingly.

Turles glared at him, "Shut the hell up! You know damn well that I bathe regularly!"

Smirking broadly, he added, "It makes it a lot easier to get into an woman's bed, you know."

"Yeah, you _would_ know," Bardock commented, rolling his eyes.

Heading for the door of the training facility, he said, "As much as I've enjoyed this conversation, I have other things to do. I'll see you at the banquet hall."

And with that, he was gone.

**x-X-x**

Trunks found himself lying down on top the castle's roof. The burning sun beat down upon his skin, but he ignored it as he allowed his thoughts to drift, only drift wasn't the right word he would use because his thoughts kept returning to a certain woman.

"Pan," he whispered with need, closing his eyes so that he could picture her face and body more clearly.

The memory of her lips against his caused a fire to stir within his lower regions. It was a fire that hotter than anything the sun could offer—a fire that quickly spread to inflame his heart.

**I don't need to dream of womanly perfection anymore**, he thought with a smile. **Because I've found it in Pan. Now, all I need to do is make her mine. Before that though, I need to find her. **

Opening his eyes, he sat up, using his elbows to support his weight as he stared across the city to where the barren desert shimmered with illusory heat waves. From this distance, it was a beautiful sight, but Trunks knew that if he flew out there, he would only find dry dirt and drifting dunes of sand.

**It's like Ruuka**, he silently mused.

Seen from a distance, Ruuka was a beautiful creature too, but like the distant desert, her beauty was also an illusion. He had seen her up close, knew every flaw of her body as well as he knew his own hand. On top of that, he _knew_ her—_knew_ exactly how ugly she was on the inside and he couldn't help but wonder _why_ he had bothered to keep her around for so long. Even before he had met Pan, he _knew_ that it was time to find someone else.

The only problem was that there were very few women who could fulfill his special needs in bed without breaking. But, Pan... Pan was different. She had the kind of beauty and strength that was able to captivate him.

He raised a hand to touch his cheek where she had struck him a day prior; he knew that she hadn't been using all of her strength, but it had still hurt him, **Of course, I **_**did**_** let my guard down, considering that I wasn't expecting her to resist me, but it still hurt.**

The hand touching his cheek throbbed with the pain, but he ignored it. In fact, he welcomed it because it was tangible proof that the woman who plagued his mind was no dream; she was made out of real flesh and blood. She was something he could touch—something he could hold—something he could _have_...

**... And I **_**will**_** have her.**

"I always get what I want, little one," he murmured softly. "You can't run forever, you know."

"Brat, stop drifting like a brain dead fool and get your butt down here. You need to start preparing for the dinner with the diplomats before I make Bra the heir to the throne and send your sorry ass packing!" His father's harsh voice cut into his thoughts, bringing him back to reality.

He scowled; he had forgotten about the dinner with the diplomats from Earth.

Unfortunately, since he was the Saiyan Prince, he knew that he didn't have a choice in the matter of attendance, **Father would skin me alive if I tried to skip out on this event. **

It was at times like this that Trunks really hated his human genes; it made it almost mandatory for him to show up whenever high ranking Earth officials were around, **Well, at least I didn't have to greet them when they first arrived.**

"I'm coming, _father_," he sneered, knowing that his father was probably standing on his balcony and scowling up at him.

Sighing with resignation, the lavender haired Demi-Saiyan floated down from his perch on the roof, **I guess my search for Pan will have to wait until after I eat.**

**x-X-x**

Pan was speechless.

A moment later, she found her voice and squeaked, "I'm sorry. Did you just say _son_?"

Hardly noticing the way her voice sounded, she asked, "My grandfather is your _son?!_"

Her eyes grew wide as the full implication of this revelation hit her, "That means you're my great grandmother!"

Pivoting her head to the side, she looked at Radditz almost accusingly, "And you're my great uncle!"

Pressing a hand to her cheek, she took a deep breath, **Oh, my God! I practically **_**seduced**_** him. **_**Eww!**_

"And I tell you that this is absurd," Radditz glared at her and then turned to face Sereri.

"Mother, you can't possibly _believe_ this girl! If what she says is true, then that would mean that Kakarot managed to live through his childhood on a planet that has a full moon every _month_. How has he managed to _remain_ unnoticed for all of these years? Don't you think that by now, he most certainly would have attracted a lot of attention?" He stared at Sereri for a long moment and before she could open her mouth to protest, he continued.

"On top of all that, Earth has increased its security, so that it can prevent rogue Saiyans from trying to live there. He _would_ have been caught! Him _and_ whatever child he had that produced Pan! Besides which, wouldn't he have tried to contact us at least _once_?! His ship was programmed to teach him his mission, our language, culture and to provide him instructions for how to notify us when his job was done. Face it, mother, Kakarot is _dead_ and this is all either an elaborate lie or a _huge_ coincidence!"

"He _does_ have a point," Sereri admitted slowly, keeping her gaze directed at Pan.

Her words were still calm and even, neither believing, nor disbelieving, "Kakarot was sent out as an infant during the Planet Trade era. I was only told that he had been assigned to a low level planet. Which one, I don't know. That information was classified at the time and later, the records were destroyed. We never heard from him and no one ever found him, so we assumed that he was dead."

Completely forgetting that she was in another timeline and that there _was _a possibility that things had turned out differently in this time than in hers, Pan answered truthfully, "I was _told_ that my grandfather hit his head when he was an infant. He forgot everything about who he was and he was raised as a human, so of course he didn't try to contact you. He didn't know _how_ to contact you or that he was even supposed to."

Turning towards Radditz, she spat, "As for turning into a giant monkey, he _couldn't_ for most of his life because his _tail_ was cut off, you stupid idiot!"

He merely snorted in response.

"So," Sereri started, forestalling any nasty comebacks her son might have. "It _could_ be possible. If Kakarot has been living on Earth before our race officially came into contact with the planet, then he would have been there before the restrictions were set in place. He would already be considered a citizen of Earth and who's to say otherwise unless he got his blood tested? So long as he didn't attract attention to himself, it is very likely that he could remain _human_ for the rest of his life."

She frowned, "Or until people start to notice that he's been living for an unnaturally long time. Still, that wouldn't happen for a while..."

"Especially since grandpa Goku lives pretty far from any major cities," Pan added helpfully. "He doesn't have much contact with people other than his family and close friends."

As the shock of the discovery wore off, excitement soon took its place, **These people are my **_**family!**_** Grandpa doesn't even remember them and here they are in front of me.**

Goku had once confided in her that he sometimes wondered what his parents were like. If she ever had the opportunity to see her grandfather again, she would love to tell him what his family was like.

Pan could see a similar gleam of excitement in Sereri's eyes as the older woman rounded on her son, "Radditz, I want you to perform a blood test on Pan. There's only one way to be certain if she's telling the truth and that's by comparing her blood to ours."

Radditz looked uneasy and Pan wondered what was going on in his head.

**Maybe he just doesn't like the idea of being related to me**, she silently mused and she found that she couldn't really blame him, especially since neither of them had really made any effort to be civil to each other.

**His tail is still probably throbbing from where I had bit **_**and**_** licked it. Oh, Kami, I'm going to hell**, she swallowed thickly.

"I don't think I can do that just yet, mother," Radditz said, glancing at the clock that lay on the kitchen wall with agitation.

Sereri's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Why not?"

"It's just that I have orders," he hastily explained, wary of his mother's ire. "Queen Bulma told me to bring Pan back to her quarters. She said something about needing to talk to her."

"So, have her blood tested on the way back to her room. A simple test like that won't take much time."

"You don't understand. I, uh, well, I'm probably in enough trouble as it is. What with all that's been going on, I still haven't reported in to the King about this yet and the orders I got from the Queen were given _yesterday_. If I don't get Pan back to her room _now_, someone's likely to order my tail served on a platter!"

The older of the two women asked, "Why haven't you reported to the King yet? I thought you were supposed to report any disturbances immediately, Radditz."

The slight tone of disapproval in his mother's voice made Radditz flinch, "It's not my fault! I couldn't very well notify the King until I knew what I had found! I had to run some blood tests and arrange for the pieces of her ship to be sent to the science lab. Then, when I got back to my room, she broke the damn regeneration tank!"

That—in and of itself—was rather upsetting since regeneration tanks were usually reserved for the elites due to their expensiveness and difficulty in producing. It would cost a lot of money to fix that tank...

**... Money that will probably come out of_ my _pocket**, he thought darkly.

"Ever since then, I've been playing a game of tag with her. I have had to chase her all over the palace, so that I _could_ report in! If I had reported in to say that I had lost her, I would be in even more trouble!"

"Good point," Sereri frowned pensively. "You're right. You need to get Pan back to her room, then report to the King at once. If you tell him what you just told me, maybe he'll be lenient."

Firming up with this resolve, she folded her arms and glared at the two of them authoritatively, "Well? What are you waiting for?! Get going! The longer you take, the angrier King Vegeta will be when you finally _do _report in!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Pan protested halfheartedly. "Don't I get any say in this?"

"No!" They shouted in unison.

"Pan," Sereri added sternly. "Allow my son to escort you to your room. This isn't a joking matter. If Vegeta-sama gets angry enough, it could mean someone's _life_. I do _not _want to lose my son because of your foolish stubbornness."

Pan opened her mouth to argue, but couldn't find anything to say. The thought of being taken back to her room like a naughty, little girl rankled her.

**I can't believe this. Even in another dimension, I'm still treated as a child**, she ranted, glaring at Radditz and Sereri sullenly.

However, she didn't want to put someone's life in danger just because she didn't feel like going back to her room, **Even if it is Radditz's life we're talking about. Then again, he is my great uncle and family means a lot to me.**

"Fine, I'll do it," she grumbled irritably.

"But, I'll need a change of clothes first. I can't go out into the hallway looking like _this_," she gestured towards the nightclothes she was wearing.

Sereri's eyes gleamed devilishly, "I have just the thing for you..."

Pan swallowed with unease, **Why do I get the feeling that it's going to be something that I won't like?**

**x-X-x**

Bra slowly woke up to the sensation of wrongness. Even with her eyes closed, she could tell that something was off. Shifting slightly on the bed—

**Wait... bed? How did I get here?**

—the bare skin of her calves and thighs relished the sensation of silk. Frowning, she struggled to open her eyes as her head seemed to swim painfully for long moments. Her lashes were heavy as she forced herself awake and she had to blink several times to make things focus. Her body felt heavy and even rotating her neck took more strength than she really had. Her breathing was slow and steady as she stared at the pale skin that seemed to be smoothed over by thick muscles of a very firm_ male _chest.

"Wha–what did I do?" She asked aloud, her voice a high pitched whisper.

Swinging her eyes upwards, she stared at the chiseled jawline of the man next to her. Some of the heaviness was chased out of her system with the shock and she woke up enough to remember what was going on. Propping herself up a little, she took the time to stare at Goten's strong bone structure. Then, her eyes fell to his neck and seeing the teeth marks belonging to her, she realized that this was the man she had mated with.

**The man I have mated with**, As the thought bounced around in her head like ping pong balls, a slow smile spread across her mouth.

**Take **_**that**_**, daddy**, she thought spitefully, before her eyes drooped forward. **Maybe I should have looked into this whole mating thing more. I can't understand why I suddenly feel so... tired.**

Yawning, she rested her head on his shoulder, finding his warmth comforting, **How strange...**

A moment later, she heard pounding on her door and that brought her back to reality. Feeling something cold trickle down her spine, her fingers automatically reached out to hold Goten's hand. It was almost as if he could sense her distress because he disentangled his fingers from her own, so that he could wrap his strong, sure arm around her, bringing her body closer to his own.

Nuzzling his neck, she purred happily, **This is nice...**

"Bra, if you're in there, you'd better get the hell up. The dinner with the diplomats starts soon," she heard her brother yell, annoyance laced in his tone.

"Oh, man, I completely forgot about that..."

Sure that the husky voice who had just spoken did not belong to her, she blinked owlishly and opened her mouth to speak.

Before she could do so, however, Trunks spoke again, "Bra, did you _hear_ me?!"

Pulling away from Goten, she frowned, "Yeah, I heard you, Trunks. I'll be there soon."

Once she was sure her brother was gone, she breathed a sigh of relief.

Pausing a moment later, her brow creased, "Wait a minute, why would _you_ be at the banquet hall for the dinner with the diplomats?"

Goten stared at her like she was crazy, "Because I _am_ one of the diplomats from Earth. Why are _you_ going to be there?"

Bra smirked haughtily, "I already told you, _boy_, I'm Vegeta-sei's Princess."

Goten's eyes grew wide, "You were _serious_?!"

She scowled, "Yes, I was _serious_, you idiot. How can _you_ be a diplomat from Earth if we have already mated? I can't mate with a human. It's not possible."

"What are you_ talking _about?" Goten asked; Bra's heart softened at his innocent tone.

A moment later, she glared at him darkly, "I'm talking about _this_."

She moved her hair away from her creamy neck to reveal the scar of his mark. Staring at her in wonder, his fingers tentatively reached out to touch the mark he had made.

"How can this be possible? I'm a human," he whispered in astonishment.

Bra's eyes grew soft, "No, you're not. I can't mate with a human."

His eyes grew hard, "I am human. I have to go."

He rolled away from her, looking for his discarded clothing. When he found it, he put it on as quickly as possible and began to stride away from her.

"Wait," she called softly.

He paused and winced, "Look, we'll talk about this after we're done with dinner."

Her eyes darkened sadly, "Fine, go. I have to get ready anyway, but know this, _boy_, you're a Saiyan and I'm going to _prove_ it."

When he disappeared out the door, she sighed tiredly, **I guess this is what I get for spiting daddy. What am I going to do?**

**x-X-x**

"I can't _believe_ your mother made me wear this," Pan grumbled, tugging on the shorts she was forced to wear and almost afraid to bend over in. "And what kind of person keeps their clothing from when they were younger anyway?"

Radditz shrugged, trying desperately—and failing miserably—to ignore her. He was afraid that if he did look at her, he wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut. When she had come out of his mother's room, wearing a small, blood red spagetti-strapped top that showed off the smooth planes of her stomach and a pair of black shorts that couldn't even be considered shorts, he had been unable to hide his reaction. And while both he and Pan had been uncomfortable—for entirely different reasons—Sereri had claimed that it was the only clothes she had that fit Pan.

"... For that matter and, hey, are you even listening to me?" Pan demanded, grabbing him by the arm and forcing him to face her.

(Un)fortunately enough for him, Romei caught up with him.

"I've been looking all over for you, Radditz," Romei called, catching up to the pair.

Panting lightly when he came to a halt in front of them, he said, "Do you know how long I've been trying to find you?!"

Resting his eyes on Pan's revealing outfit, he swallowed audibly and the purred hungrily, "My, my, I see why you I couldn't find you. How could you take her shopping without me? I would've liked to see her get all dressed up."

A scarlet flush streaked across Radditz's cheeks, "Get your mind out of the gutter, Romei! I didn't do anything like that with Pan!"

The very thought made him shudder now, **My God, she's my _niece_.**

Pan too was blushing furiously at the comment, "Dumbass! Do you _want_ me to kick your ass?!"

"Mmm... Ass..." Romei's eyes had a slightly glazed look to them—the reason for which became quite apparent when he inhaled deeply.

His tail fluffed in a clear indication of where his thoughts were wandering, "Yeah, I want some of that..."

Eyes widening in outrage, Pan glared so heatedly at Romei that it was a wonder why he wasn't burned to a crisp on the spot. She stomped up to the other man, fists clenched at her sides and looking ready to tear his limbs off.

However, before Pan could say or do anything to him, Radditz grabbed her by the arm and hauled her back, "Stupid girl, if you don't want comments like that, then you shouldn't stand so close to a male when you're in season!"

She looked up at him, her dark eyes guileless, "Then, how come you're not affected by it?"

Radditz clenched his jaw angrily. She was doing it again—making heat curl in his belly and warm his cheeks—saying things a woman—_girl_, he reminded himself—in her position really shouldn't say. But then, he had known that she would answer him back smartly, hadn't he? That was why he had responded to her question. A better man would have reprimanded her for saying such things, but he couldn't kid himself. He liked the way she teased him and played with him and by saying nothing, he was letting her know it.

"Be–because I'm your uncle," he said, feeling his face flush.

"Oh..."

Ignoring the embarrassed flush that lit up her face, he turned to face Romei, "Why were you looking for me, Romei?"

"Hmm? What?" Romei shook his head, still slightly dazed by the effects of Pan's scent. "Oh, right. Queen Bulma sent me to find you. There's a change of orders. After you find Pan Son—which you have obviously already done... _without_ me—she wants to talk to her. She didn't say what it was about."

"I see. Do you know where the Queen is?" Radditz asked curiously.

"I think she's in the banquet hall," he said, his eyes falling back to Pan's revealing clothing.

**The banquet hall?** Radditz was surprised. **Why would Queen Bulma be in the banquet hall?**

Shrugging the question away as temporarily unanswerable, the wild haired man nodded, "Thank you for telling me, Romei. In the mean time, I want you to go to the engineering department and request repairs for the regeneration tank Pan broke. Tell them to take the expenses out of my account."

Romei's face showed disappointment. He had probably wanted to stay with him, or more specifically, with _Pan_, but he nodded reluctantly anyway.

"Okay," he said, turning around and heading in the direction of Radditz's quarters.

"Let's get going," Radditz sighed tiredly.

He had a feeling that this wouldn't be the last either of them saw of Romei.

**x-X-x**

A short time later, Pan and Radditz were briskly walking down yet another hall—this time, heading for the banquet hall where Romei had said that the Queen was waiting. Pan was still wearing her revealing outfit, despite her protests. Radditz didn't have the time to stop by her room since he still needed to report her to the King.

Coming to a stop in front of a pair of ornately carved doors, he took a moment to compose himself.

"Well, we're here," he murmured to his companion.

Not waiting for a response, he stepped forward and pushed the doors open, a sinking feeling entering in the pit of his stomach, **Somehow, I get the feeling that this is not going to go well at all...**

* * *


	14. Two Steps Backward

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 13:** **Two Steps Backward**

When Bra made it into the banquet hall almost ten minutes later than one of the diplomats from Earth, Bardock immediately became suspicious. He noticed that her face was flushed and she couldn't quite look at anyone in the eye, which was odd, considering that she had always been a haughty woman—or at least, she _was_ until Vegeta had told her that she was going to mate with Toma before Trunks' tournament.

"Sorry I'm late," she murmured, her voice light.

"Take a seat, _dear_."

Bulma's tone conveyed how disappointed she was with her daughter and Bra noticed that as she took one of the only seats left in the banquet hall; she immediately choked on an anguished cry when she realized that she was sitting across from the man she had mated with.

**How ****strange**, he mused thoughtfully.

Idly stroking his chin with one of his gloved hands, he turned his dark eyes to scrutinize Goten—who, incidentally, had come to the banquet hall late as well, with rumpled clothes and kiss-roughened lips, but Bardock knew that since he wasn't a Saiyan, there wasn't anything he could have done with Vegeta's precious daughter—at least, nothing life threatening...

**... Unless he really**_** is **_**a Saiyan...**

He was pulled away from his thoughts when a soft voice started, "So, Prince Trunks..."

Shifting his gaze to the other diplomat from Earth—

**What did she say her name was? Marven? Marron? Yes, I think that's it.**

—he saw that she was delicately wiping her mouth with the finely embroidered napkin that sat next to her plate during the course of the meal. He noted with wry amusement that she was one of the _few_ people to have even touched their napkins.

**But, that's to be expected since we aren't exactly noted for our **_**table**_** manners**, he thought with a wide grin; that was mostly because they ate too quickly to accommodate such tedious foolishness.

While they weren't _messy_ eaters, or at least, they weren't for occasions such as this one, they didn't bother to waste any time wiping their lips since it would only stay clean for a minute or two.

"How is the search for your bride coming?"

Trunks' lips curled upwards, "I believe I have found a... _suitable_ candidate."

He took a small sip of wine from his goblet and then swirled the scarlet liquid in his glass for a moment, before putting it down. He kept his eyes trained on Marron's face and for a moment, he could have sworn that she flushed underneath his scrutiny.

A derisive snort from Vegeta greeted his statement as the Saiyan King looked up from his food.

"Oh, _really_?" He sneered sarcastically. "Well, that's certainly news to me! Tell me, Trunks, since when did the word _suitable_ become an appropriate way to refer to that _disgusting _woman?"

Trunks scowled faintly, "I wasn't referring to Ruuka, _father_."

Bardock's eyebrows shot up in surprise and he yanked his attention away from the human diplomats long enough to give Trunks a hard, measuring look, **I wasn't aware that he had changed bed mates.**

He frowned, wondering if he was slipping or if Trunks had gone out of his way to prevent him from finding out. He generally made it his business to know who had captured the Demi-Saiyan's interest, as that person might end up being a possible threat later on or potentially, the future Queen of Vegeta-sei.

Either way, he was always supposed to be up to par, **Maybe this suitable candidate is new. This **_**is**_** the first time **_**I**_** have heard of her.**

Apparently, this news caught Vegeta off-guard as well because he set his utensils down—a sure sign of shock among Saiyans, who never put their utensils down unless they were finished eating.

"You replaced that filthy _cow_?" He asked, not even bothering to dignify Ruuka with her given name.

At Trunks' affirming nod, he snorted approvingly, "It's about time. So, who is this new woman you're referring to? Of course, practically _anyone_ would be better than that whor–"

"_Ahem!_"

He cut the word off with a slight frown, glancing at Bulma as he did so; she smiled tightly and made a brief gesture to Goten and Marron with her eyes.

_**Right.**_** Polite company and all that crap.**

"–Woman," he amended after a barely noticeable pause. "Still, I would like to know who you have chosen this time."

Trunks smiled cheekily, "I don't think that you've met her, father. I'll have to bring her to meet you sometime."

He failed to mention the small fact that Pan might not agree with his sentiments regarding suitability since the idea that she might not _want_ to be his bride never crossed his mind.

"You do realize that I must approve of your final choice, don't you, Trunks?" Vegeta commented nonchalantly, not liking the way Trunks kept avoiding his questions.

When Trunks said nothing, he added, "Remember that your time is running out. The tournament is only a week away."

Trunks tensed and shot Vegeta a venomous glare, "I will choose my _own_ mate, father!"

When Vegeta had first issued the ultimatum, Trunks hadn't thought anything of it, since he figured that he wouldn't meet anyone he would actually want to mate with and like his father had already said, anyone would make a better future Queen than Ruuka, but that was _before_ he met Pan!

"Only if you can do so before the tournament begins," Vegeta calmly replied, picking up his fork and knife once again to continue his interrupted meal and thus, signaling the end of the discussion.

Inwardly, he was somewhat surprised by Trunks' reaction to his words. When he had first announced the tournament and its purpose, Trunks hadn't made any kind of protest.

**I wonder...** he allowed the incomplete thought to trail off with a small shake of his head. **Nah.**

After watching Trunks a moment longer, Bardock turned his gaze back to Goten; the spiky haired youth hadn't paid any attention to Vegeta _or_ Trunks. Instead, he was happily focused on the food in front of him. His earlier suspicions were immediately rekindled when he saw the way Goten was shoveling the food into his mouth; it was at a rate that rivaled the speed of even some of the table's _Saiyan_ occupants!

**No **_**human**_** could eat that much food**, Bardock thought with contempt.

He briefly glanced at Marron's plate for confirmation and nodded to himself when he saw the pathetic portions of food she had served herself in comparison to the heaping mounds her partner was consuming.

**That boy**_** is **_**a Saiyan. There's no denying it. All I need is a blood sample to prove it. I'm sure of it! **Pursing his lips, Bardock silently vowed to drag Goten to one of the science labs as soon as the feast was over, so that he could personally run the tests himself.

However, another thought struck him a moment later, **But, if he is a Saiyan, then that means he could've done something with Bra.**

He glanced at the blue haired Princess, who _still_ wouldn't meet anyone in the eye as she played with the food seated on her plate absentmindedly.

**Or maybe she's still angry that her father is forcing her to mate with a man she hardly knows**, his conscience offered.

He frowned pensively, shrugged and promptly went back to eating, **Maybe. **

Up until this point, Marron had kept silent, sensing that her voice in Vegeta's argument with Trunks would be unwelcomed.

However, now that the confrontation seemed to be over, she decided to risk a question, "I know that I may be overstepping my boundaries here, but what tournament were you referring to, Vegeta-sama?"

"Tournament?" Goten's ears almost visibly perked up at the word; he was finally showing interest in something other than his food.

**Yet another Saiyan trait**, Bardock noted grimly.

A tap on his shoulder distracted him from his thoughts.

"Bardock, where's your brother?" Gallot asked quietly, jerking his head in the direction of the suspiciously empty seat where Turles _should_ have been sitting.

"I don't know, Gallot," Bardock replied just as quietly, so as not to draw the attention of any of the other diners.

Scowling at the empty seat, he added, "I know that he knew about the banquet and that he was supposed to be here. When I spoke with him an hour ago, he said that he was going to get cleaned up."

When a quick scan of the room failed to produce his brother, Bardock let out a string of expletives that made Gallot squirm uncomfortably.

"... tournament will be all female," Bra's voice drifted down the table from where she was speaking with the two foreign diplomats. "Officially, the tournament is being held, so that Trunks can _assess_ the general improvement of the planet's fighting ability."

"But, unofficially," Bulma started. "It's a contest to find the strongest woman on the planet. The winner will be the future Queen of Vegeta-sei."

"Coincidentally, all of the contestants must be unmated and of marrying age," Bra muttered, shooting her father a disgruntled glare—which he promptly ignored. "We wouldn't want a possible _pregnant _woman to fight and get hurt. Anyway, the theory is that the stronger the parents, the stronger the children will be, so the winner of the tournament would be the ideal mate for my brother."

Marron frowned, "Doesn't Prince Trunks have a choice about this?"

"Oh, trust me, he's had his chance," Vegeta snorted. "I told him last year that it was time for him to take a mate and that he had a year to find a suitable woman before I found someone for him myself. The year ends in one week."

Trunks muttered darkly in response, but whatever he said was lost in the gentle babble of conversation from the rest of the table.

"... took out a third of the first class soldiers..."

"... heard it was a woman..."

"... money's on her for the tournament..."

"... _doubt _it was a woman. No female's _that_ strong and how do you even know if she's even of marrying age? Oh, do me a favor and pass the wine... No, not _that _bottle. Give me the red one. That other stuff tastes like vinegar. _Bleck!_"

"I'm going to skin him alive," Bardock growled, violently spearing his meat with his fork and imagining it was Turles' head.

"Skin who, brother, dear?"

Sliding into his seat a couple of chairs down from his brother, Turles raised his voice to address the head of the table, "I apologize for being late, your Majesty. I was... _detained_."

With a small smirk, Turles began to help himself to the food on the table, but paused briefly to toss his infuriated brother a lewd wink.

Vegeta chortled knowingly, "Yes, I imagine you were. So, who was it this time?"

"You remember that _cute_ new officer in the science department?" Turles waggled his eyebrows to emphasize the word cute.

He briefly glanced at Bardock to see the reaction his words would cause. After all, it wasn't everyday that his latest conquest occurred amongst his brother's own ranks.

Shooting Turles a nasty look, Bardock barely managed to refrain from bashing his head in then and there, **I don't understand why Vegeta is always so forgiving with him when he always goes too far with his words. I hope one of these days, Turles' tail is served up on a silver platter—or even better, his head!**

"It isn't so much that I find your brother's stunts amusing, Bardock," Vegeta murmured, startling Bardock out of his thoughts.

The older warrior barely had time to wonder if the King had somehow learned to read his thoughts before Vegeta continued, his eyes twinkling mischievously, "It's the way you react."

Bardock opened his mouth to speak and then closed it—several times—as the words to express his indignation failed him, **Oh, hell, they're both doing this just to annoy me!**

Before he could sputter an indignant accusation, Vegeta started speaking again, "By the way, Turles, there are much _better_ reasons for being late to banquets..."

His voice was too casual for Turles' liking and the older twin swallowed thickly when Vegeta grinned slyly, "... Such as a _friendly_ spar, but since we're already here, how about we spar afterwards?"

It was a hard fight for Bardock to keep himself from snickering at the look on his brother's face, **That'll teach the arrogant ass. I bet Vegeta was just itching for an excuse to beat someone up and since Turles is one of the strongest beings on the planet, he's the **_**perfect**_** candidate.**

Lips twitching with amusement, he silently added, **It's a good thing he came late, otherwise, I'm pretty sure Vegeta would've asked **_**me**_** to spar with him. I'll have to thank Turles later—particularly, when he's bloodied and beaten.**

Paling as the blood drained from his face, Turles gulped and nodded miserably, "Yes, sire."

"Good! We'll meet in the training room off of the east wing immediately after dinner is done," Vegeta smirked broadly at his soon-to-be-victim.

He then refocused his attention on the diplomats, "I apologize for the interruption."

He didn't sound very sorry at all as he continued, "Now, where were we?"

Wearing twin expressions of bemusement, Goten and Marron glanced at each other, uncertain of how they should respond to all of this—they both missed the dark look Bra gave Marron. Goten opened his mouth to say something, but whatever it was was abruptly cut off when the doors to the banquet hall were thrown open with a loud _bang_! Every head turned in the direction of the disturbance, the noise level in the room falling dramatically as conversations trailed off.

Bardock frowned, wondering who else had been foolish enough to arrive late, **Whoever it is probably won't get off as easy as Turles did. I pity the poor fool.**

To his surprise, the person who strode into the banquet hall was none other than his own son, Radditz. Upon seeing the people gathered for dinner, the wild maned warrior's steps faltered, surprise—

**Wait, is that _fear_?!**

—flickering in his eyes. Behind him was a woman, clad in clothing that looked suspiciously like the clothing Sereri used to wear when she was younger. Her silky black hair was oddly affected by the gravity to fall in smooth, flat curtains—not a hint of typical Saiyan spikes anywhere. But, she was a Saiyan, as evidenced by the fuzzy brown tail lashing the air at her side.

Bardock raised an eyebrow in surprise, recognizing her as the woman he had run into the night before, **Then, that means the clothing she's wearing is Sereri's! Who is she and why is she with Radditz?**

A sharp intake of breath alerted Bardock to the fact that Turles had also noticed the strange female. Glancing at Turles, Bardock was surprised to see a light of recognition in his onyx eyes—eyes that were glaring at the two newcomers.

"It's her!" Turles hissed, standing up so suddenly that he knocked his chair over. "That's Pan Son!"

With those words, chaos erupted throughout the room.

Bardock got to his feet and instinctively raised his guard as he whipped his scouter out of his pocket and attached it to the side of his face. Pressing the button on the side, he trained the scouter's sensors on the surprised female at his son's side; numbers immediately appeared in the green lens and then started shooting up at an astonishing speed.

"What the–?"

"Pan?!" Goten yelped as both he and Marron jumped up; shock, bewilderment and alarm were equally evident on both of their faces.

"What is _she_ doing _here_?!" Marron asked, her voice frantic.

"Forget about that. What is she _wearing_?!" Goten's eyes ran over Pan's barely clothed body and he scowled.

"Pan," Trunks breathed, looking both surprised and pleased at the same time; he immediately stood up and began walking towards Radditz and Pan.

"Radditz, what is the_ meaning _of this?!" Vegeta roared, obviously confused by the sudden pandemonium caused by one soldier and one female Saiyan.

Of course, he didn't know that Pan was the same woman he had ordered Bardock to track down and bring before him, as Bardock had not had the time to report his findings to the King before the banquet began. He too would have gotten out of his seat if it hadn't been for Bulma's sudden restraining grip on his arm. Shooting her a startled and angry glare, Vegeta roughly pulled his arm away and rose to his feet.

"Vegeta, wait!" Bulma cried, trying to grab Vegeta's arm again, but he was already out of her reach.

"Not _now_, woman," he growled, striding swiftly towards the pair standing frozen in front of the open door.

Even from across the room, Bardock saw the way the blood drained from his son's face at Vegeta's sudden approach.

"Radditz, what the _hell_ is going on?! Who is this woman?"

Radditz's mouth worked soundlessly for a few moments, but it seemed that words refused to come; the only sound in the room was the confused babble of the people who had no idea what was going on and the rapid beeping of Bardock's scouter as it continued to try to get a reading on Pan's energy.

**How can her power level still be rising?** Bardock's eyes widened with alarm when he realized how high the numbers were already. **Thirty thousand?! Th–that's impossible!**

And yet, the numbers were still rising.

"Ve–Vegeta?" Pan squeaked.

Her breathing was becoming short and erratic, the panicked expression on her face growing more and more pronounced.

She took a few nervous steps away from the approaching Saiyans and shrunk into Radditz, "Tr–Trunks?"

Then, her eyes landed on Goten and Marron, who had both gotten out of their seats as well and she began to tremble. Her lips moved, as though she was forming names, but whatever she said, she said it too quietly for Bardock to hear.

Bardock's eyes narrowed, **She recognizes them **_**and**_** they recognize her! Pan and Goten Son; I would bet my tail that those two are related. **

Seemingly sensing that his charge was about to bolt, Radditz's hand snaked out and latched onto Pan's wrist, startling her out of her shock. Feeling like a cornered animal, she let out a low growl and struggled to free herself from Radditz's tight grip to no avail.

Bardock grinned at his son with pride since he was one of the strongest Saiyans on the planet, **Pan will soon find that breaking free will not be easy.**

Cra–_boom!_

Bardock's head jerked back reflexively as the scouter exploded in his face. Cursing profusely, he clapped a hand to his ear and rubbed it for a moment before reality caught up to him. Then, he _really_ swore.

**She destroyed the scouter!** His mind screamed, referring to the level of strength it usually took to make a scouter blow up.

Nowadays, it took a ki of about seventy thousand or more to accomplish that feat—a strength unheard of in any but the strongest of Saiyans in their untransformed state.

**For an untransformed Saiyan **_**female**_** to be **_**that**_** strong...**

"_Let me go!_" Pan snarled at Radditz, a visible red aura dancing around her figure.

Abruptly changing tactics, the diminutive woman stopped trying to pull her wrist out of Radditz's hand. Before he even had a chance to register what was happening, Pan had curled her free hand into a fist and punched him hard between the eyes with such force that he was sent hurtling across the room. Radditz slammed into the wall and then slid to the floor in an unconscious heap, leaving behind a spider web of cracks where his head had impacted with the stone wall.

A moment of stunned silence ensued as everyone in the room—Pan included—gaped at the fallen warrior. Almost as though she couldn't believe what she had just done, the young woman's eyes flicked from Radditz to her fist and then back again. Turning his attention back to Pan, Bardock thought he saw a slightly guilty expression in her eyes, but it was gone before he could be sure.

"Oh, my God!" Pan breathed, taking an uncertain step backwards before she abruptly spun around and darted out of the room.

"Trunks, go after her!" Vegeta bellowed at his son—the closest person to Pan—who needed no second urging as he was already sprinting after her. "Turles, Gallot, go with him! When you find her, bring her to me at once!"

"Yes, sir!" Turles and Gallot immediately ran out of the room on the heels of the Saiyan Prince.

"Vegeta," Bardock hurriedly approached the shorter man, holding out the broken pieces of his scouter, his expression grim. "Her energy—"

"I know, Bardock. I can sense ki, remember?" Vegeta stated, frowning pensively.

Bardock nodded; he had known, but it was still his duty to inform the King about the overloaded scouter.

"Get your son and put him in a regeneration tank. I want him healed as quickly as possible."

Glancing at Radditz's still form, Vegeta's features hardened, "Find out what he knows about all of this and then bring him to me."

"Yes, sir," Bardock replied somberly, shaking his head as he walked over to his unconscious son; he had a feeling that Radditz was in a lot of trouble.

Bending down, he grunted and lifted Radditz into his arms, "While I'm at it, I should take the diplomat, Goten Son, down to the med labs and get his blood tested."

Bardock straightened up and opened his mouth to call out to the suspected Saiyan to follow him—only to stop short before the first word left his lips since Goten was nowhere in sight.

He inwardly cursed, **Oh, hell. This is just not my day...**

* * *


	15. Desperate Measures

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Kami: God.

--

_Italicized_—The Explanation of the Mating Process

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 14:** **Desperate Measures**

Running as fast as her legs would carry her down one of the palace's many corridors without going Super Saiyan, Pan frantically searched for some way to escape the people that she _knew_ were pursuing her.

The pounding of her heart provided a staccato accompaniment to the thoughts rattling around in her head, **What in the world is grandpa Goku doing here with **_**Marron**_** of all people?! I mean, shouldn't he be here with uncle Goten or daddy?**

With speed born out of desperation, the raven haired woman skidded around a corner and sprinted down yet another hall, passing door after door and not bothering to open any of them, **I **_**refuse**_** to end up trapped inside another closet! Damn it, why isn't anything ever easy?**

Hoping to lose whoever it was that was following her, Pan rounded another corner at random, then another and another until she herself was quite lost. Unfortunately, her plan to lose the people following her didn't seem to be working because she could still sense the three strong ki's trailing behind her and a fourth that was fast gaining on them.

Pan swore softly, **No one that I've met so far can sense ki, so how are they following me?**

With a start, the conversation that she had with the Bulma from this universe floated back to her memory and she realized that she was probably still _in season_, **Oh, great. They're tracking me by scent! Damn Saiyans and their acute sense of smell... Okay Pan, think! How am I going to get them off of my trail?**

Surprisingly, the answer to her question came as she passed by a door tucked away into a small alcove. The door was slightly ajar, allowing the smells from within the room to pass into the hallway, carrying with it the faint odor of potatoes, squash, grain, flour and most notably, garlic. Inspiration struck like a bolt of lightning and without thinking it through, Pan hurried into the room, yanking the door shut behind her. A swift examination of the room confirmed what her nose had told her; the walls were lined with barrels, sacks, jars and crates of all sorts of exotic and non-exotic food.

**I must be near the kitchen if they're willing to leave all of this food here**, Pan mused, glancing around the room.

Garlic hung in clusters from a rack suspended above the ceiling, filling the room with a pungent aroma. Grabbing a handful of the pale off-white bulbs, Pan frantically tried to stuff them where she could, which wasn't much help considering that the outfit she wore clung to her like second skin—it was an uncomfortable but effective way to mask her telltale scent.

Smirking triumphantly, she thought,** Ha! I'd like to see them try to find me now.**

"... went this way!" A faint voice said from outside the room.

Pan paled considerably then and cursed her stupidity, knowing that she wouldn't be able to get out of the room without being spotted unless she found someplace to hide fast. Unfortunately, the room held very little that could be used to hide her presence; there were a few sealed barrels, discarded boxes and heavy sacks.

"Wait a minute..." she trailed off, her eyes sparkling mischievously as a plan began to form inside her mind.

The sacks were easily big enough for her to hide in and some of them were half empty. Snatching up one of the sacks, she immediately started emptying its contents into one of the other sacks. With her heart beating frantically, Pan practically dove head-first into the now empty sack, wriggling and scooting until her entire body was hidden from view. Then she held really still, lowering her ki signature as far as it would go.

**This is pathetic! I've been reduced to a sack of potatoes—a big,**_** lumpy **_**sack of potatoes**, she silently chanted, as though the mantra would help protect her from the prying eyes of her pursuers.** I am a **_**huge**_** sack of—**

The door suddenly opened, making her breath catch in her throat. Soft footsteps moved across the stone floor, drawing closer to her hiding spot and Pan found it difficult to inhale and exhale without panicking.

**Please–leave–please–leave–please–leave**, Pan inwardly pleaded, her eyes sliding firmly shut.

In her mind's eye, she imagined that the person in the room with her was looming over her, reaching into the sack and pulling her out.

Taking a deep, steadying breath to calm her nerves, Pan was preparing to power up and throw everything she had in the face of her would-be captor when the footsteps abruptly stopped, **Wh–what's going on? Are they finally going to leave me alone?**

"Prince Trunks, the scouter cannot pick up her energy signal anywhere," stated a voice that Pan didn't recognize.

**Sc–scouter?** She blinked owlishly. **Damn it! I forgot about those things.**

"Her scent has vanished too," another voice added, sounding astonished and for the life of her, Pan could not place where she had heard that particular voice before. "It's like she disappeared into thin air!"

"Indeed," an all-too-familiar voice replied.

Pan's swallowed thickly, Sereri's breakfast threatening to make an encore appearance when she realized who exactly was in the room with her.

**No. No. **_**NO! **_**I do **_**not**_** have the time to deal with you right now, Trunks. Go **_**away**_**!** She nearly groaned out loud in despair.

A slight scuffing sound brought her out of her inner rant.

"... scent disappeared right outside of this room," there was a slight pause afterwards, in which Pan figured that Trunks was assessing the room for a particular disturbance. "I don't see her in here, but she might have gone into the ventilation system. Do you see how the grate hasn't been securely fastened over there...? If she did come in here, the smells from all of this food would certainly mask her scent."

Resisting the urge to cheer at the faulty assumption, Pan tried to control her breathing pattern, afraid that Trunks would discover her at any given moment. The sound of hard boots thudding against the floor warned her that someone was moving around again. Thankfully though, the footsteps seemed to be fading away to the other side of the room.

"I don't think so, my Prince," the unfamiliar voice remarked. "If you look closely, you can see that even though the grate is loose, there aren't any telltale signs that show someone crawling into the ducts recently. If you note the fine layer of dust here, you'll see that it has been untouched."

"Hmm, you're right, Gallot," Trunks grudgingly agreed, moving to join the other man by the grate.

"She may have still come in here," the other, vaguely familiar voice chipped in. "It's possible that she could have grabbed something from in here to mask her scent, though I don't understand how that would explain the way her ki disappeared from the radar like that."

"There's a technique for ki suppression," Trunks commented in an absentminded manner. "Father once mentioned that he encountered other races with that ability. Pan must have picked it up somewhere."

"Damn, that's going to make it hard to find her."

Trunks chuckled darkly and the sound sent Pan reeling, fear skittering up her spine, "Don't worry, Turles. I assure you that we _will _find her."

Pan gulped loudly, not liking the innuendo Trunks implied with his husky voice.

"Now, let's go. We've spent far too much time in this room already."

Waiting until the sound of the retreating footsteps had faded away completely, Pan let the breath she had been holding escape her lungs in a slow rush, **That was way too close for comfort. I have to be more careful.**

She allowed a few more seconds to pass before she felt that it was safe enough to remove the uncomfortable garlic bulbs from her clothing, wanting to be certain that Trunks and his two flunkies were well and far away from her before she emerged from the room.

Sure that the time she had given them to leave was sufficient enough, she had barely begun to take the garlic out of the clothing that she wore when a voice close to her hiding spot startled her into letting out a high-pitched scream, "_Pan?_"

There was a soft little whisper then, one she vainly wished that she could shut up, **This is your way of staying under the radar?**

**x-X-x **

"Pan!" Goten yelped, leaping to his feet as soon as he saw his niece standing next to an unfamiliar Saiyan with long, spiky hair.

Brows furrowing harshly, he frantically tried to recall if there was some way she could have stowed away on the transport ship he and Marron had boarded earlier that day and then, with stark clarity, remembered seeing her at the small farewell party that had been arranged for close friends and family to have a chance to say goodbye to the two Earth-born diplomats.

Throughout the whole party, Pan had stayed close to her parents, Gohan—Goten's older brother—and Videl, but had taken the time to offer both he and Marron a heartfelt goodbye and a few words of wisdom; at the time that she had spoken those few words of wisdom, Goten felt pride swell in his chest, unable to believe how grown up his niece had become. At the time of the party, though, she hadn't made any indication that she wanted to accompany them to Vegeta-sei and had in fact mentioned that she would be helping the Satan City police investigate a recent string of murders in the area.

And yet, in obvious defiance of both attitude and words, Pan was here... on Vegeta-sei... in the banquet hall and... wearing clothes made for a playboy pin-up.

Goten blinked a few times, wondering if he was hallucinating, but when the clothing his niece wore didn't change, he scowled darkly, **When did Pan decide to make this change? She has never liked skin-tight clothes. Why is she starting now?**

"_What_ is _she_ doing _here_?!" Marron's frantic voice snapped him out of his stupor.

"Forget about that. What is she _wearing_?!" Goten's eyes ran over Pan's barely clothed body again and his scowl became fiercer.

"That's not important, Goten! She shouldn't _be_ here," Marron hissed impatiently.

**Maybe that's not really Pan**, he thought, then shook the inconsequential thought away when he realized that there was no one else it could be.

This woman had the same silky black hair, the same wide eyes and most importantly of all, the same ki signa—

**Wait a minute... Her ki signature is **_**different**_, Goten frowned, mentally assessing his niece's steadily rising ki as she struggled to free herself from her captor's grip. **It's a lot stronger than it was before. How can that be?**

Before he had the chance to ponder this oddity, Pan's fist connected with her captor's face and sent the man crashing into the wall across the room. Watching the long haired Saiyan crumble to the ground like a broken rag doll, Goten found his jaw smacking his knees, completely stunned by Pan's uncharacteristic display of strength and lack of control, judging by the look of surprised guilt he saw flickering in her eyes.

_**What's going on?**_ He thought, bewildered. **Pan has never been this strong and she's always been in control of her strength. She has to be, considering that she works in the police force.**

Ignoring the chaos that erupted within the room when Pan suddenly turned on her heel and fled, Goten spun around and grabbed Marron by the arm, ignoring the prickling sensation that surged through him—hot and dark—as he stumbled and dragged the petite blonde to an emptier part of the room.

"I'm going after her," he said, his voice laced with a steel that he rarely had cause to reveal. "If anyone asks where I am, tell them that I had to go to the bathroom."

Not waiting for a response, Goten ran through the nearest doors at a speed that made him invisible to all but the most well-trained eyes. He didn't see the way Marron's eyes iced over with anger or hear her promise of retribution for leaving her to do all of the damage control.

It probably would have been easier to track Pan by leaving the banquet hall through the same doors she had, but he really didn't want anyone to notice him leaving. With any luck, King Vegeta would be so distracted by Pan's actions that he would forget about both he and Marron for the time being. With the brief tour that he had been granted before he had lost track of both Marron and the A'yokan beings and his ability to sense his niece's ki, Goten was sure that he could find an alternate route to intersect Pan's path of escape.

Sure enough, it was only a minute or so before his sensitive nose—he had been told that his sense of smell was far more acute than the average human's—caught a whiff of his niece's familiar scent, but there was something off about it that made him frown; it was heavier, ripe with the scent of something he couldn't quite place and immediately, he became alert, unease sweeping through his system. He increased the pace of his speed, but managed to do so with much difficulty as his knees became weaker the further he moved away from the banquet hall.

With a grim expression on his face, he noted that three significant ki's were following Pan... and they were gaining on her quickly, **I'd better hurry before Pan runs into some **_**real **_**trouble.**

He wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do when he caught up to Pan and her pursuers, but he knew that time was of the essence. With a sickening lurch of his stomach, Goten suddenly realized that Pan's ki had stopped moving, had all but disappeared and that the three other ki's were practically right on top of her. Uncomfortable with all of the possible reasons why Pan's energy might have dropped so low so fast, Goten began to run, feeling a bit numb, as if his brain and his feet couldn't quite connect which direction he was supposed to be going. There was something that felt a long way off and the energy that the food he had eaten earlier was fading fast.

He was mentally preparing himself to have to defend his niece from her attackers when he was close enough to hear the voice of one of Pan's would-be captor, "—mask her scent, though I don't understand how that would explain the way her ki disappeared from the radar like that."

Slowing to a halt just before rounding the final corner where his niece was located, Goten forced himself to concentrate on what the men were saying as his lashes felt heavy and sticky, as if he hadn't slept at all and only the concern for his niece's well-being gave him the energy he needed to think rationally.

Confused by the reference one of the men made concerning Pan's ki, Goten found himself frowning pensively, **Her ki hasn't disappeared. It's just really low. Why would they even think—**

His eyes widened in sudden realization, **Oh, I forgot. Most Saiyans rely on scouter technology to track energy readings... and scouters aren't anywhere near as accurate as natural ki senses. They probably can't even pick up Pan's energy when it's this low... and even if they did, they'd likely just assume that it was a rodent or something.**

Quickly lowering his own ki signature to a nearly nonexistent level, Goten peeked around the corner to see what the Saiyans were doing, but saw nothing and he swallowed hard when he realized that all three of the men were in the room with Pan.

"There's a technique for ki suppression," someone was murmuring and Goten had to strain his ears to hear what the men were saying. "Father once mentioned that he encountered other races with that ability. Pan must have picked it up somewhere."

**How the hell do they know her name? She only arrived today... didn't she?**

"Damn, that's going to make it hard to find her."

Goten leaned against the wall, inwardly breathing a sigh of relief, **Thank you, Kami.**

A low chuckle drew Goten's attention back to the conversation at hand, "Don't worry, Turles. I assure you that we _will _find her."

Narrowing his eyes thoughtfully, Goten was finally able to place the arrogant voice.

Like his father, he was fiercely protective of his family and he found himself grimly vowing, **Not if I have anything to say about it, **_**Prince**_** Trunks.**

"Now, let's go. We've spent far too much time in this room already," the purple haired prince emerged from the room, followed by a burly Saiyan that Goten hadn't been introduced to but had seen at the banquet.

The final Saiyan who strode out into the hallway was one who had come to the banquet hall late and whom he recognized as Turles, another man who struck an eerie resemblance to Goten's father, Goku.

Ignoring the uneasy twisting in his gut at seeing someone who looked so much like his father dressed in Saiyan armor and acting nothing like the kind, gentle man Goten knew, the young diplomat shook his head and sternly told himself that it was purely coincidence, **After all, they say that somewhere in the world, there is a twin for everyone. Someone who resembles us or possibly someone we might mirror as well. It's just my dad's luck that he has two twins and they're both Saiyans.**

Immediately turning to his right, Trunks set off down the hallway at a light jog, Turles and the other Saiyan falling into place behind him. Goten waited until they were out of sight, then quickly strode into the room they had just vacated.

The fear that Pan had been hurt or knocked unconscious no longer seemed likely as neither Trunks nor his men had shown any indications that they had been in a fight and they hardly would've left Pan behind if they had knocked her out, **Which means that there's only one possible explanation for Pan's low energy signal; she's gone into hiding. That's my girl.**

Sure enough, to his eyes, the room was seemingly empty when Goten stepped inside and first looked around. The room appeared to be nothing more than a food cellar of some kind, filled with bags, barrels and crates of flour, vegetables and grain. Though his eyes were easily fooled, his ki senses immediately picked up on a lumpy sack lying off to one side, a lumpy sack with a very familiar ki signature that was starting to twitch. Goten blinked a few times to make sure that his imagination wasn't playing tricks on him. When the sack began to wriggle, he realized that he wasn't seeing things.

Walking over to the sack tentatively so as not to startle her, he softly called out, "Pan?"

The twitching bag immediately stilled and a high-pitched scream had him covering his highly sensitive ears, "Kami, Pan! Are you_ trying _to kill me?!"

The screaming was abruptly cut off and despite the situation, Goten found his lips quirking in amusement. Of all the things he had thought he might encounter on this planet, Pan hiding from an enemy and screaming like a girl was certainly not one of them.

"Pancake, you know you can come out now, don't you? The others are gone," he crouched down next to the bag, his voice warm.

There was a moment of silence, then the bag started moving again as Pan wriggled her way out of it and sat up. Her hair was mussed and bits of whatever had once been in the sack clung to the silky black strands of her hair, but there was no mistaking that this was indeed his niece... with a look on her face that had him puzzled.

"What did you call me?" She asked, wonder in her voice and disbelief in her gaze.

"Pancake, did you hit your head?" He gave her an exasperated look that didn't quite hide his underlying affection.

"Uncle Go–Goten?" She tentatively asked, almost as though she was expecting him to suddenly morph into someone else.

Thinking back to his encounters with the two Goku look-alikes, Goten really couldn't blame her.

Grinning in a typical Son fashion, he reached out and began to remove the food that still clung to his niece's hair.

"Yeah, it's me," he confirmed.

A look of pure relief washed over Pan's face. Then, much to Goten's surprise, she threw herself into his arms and buried her face in his shirt, her entire body trembling like a leaf in a storm.

Goten wasn't certain what the cause of her shaking was—fear, stress or something else—but he wrapped his arms around her shoulders anyway and returned the hug in full, baffled when she kept murmuring over and over again, "You're here. You're really here. Thank Kami you're here."

**x-X-x**

Bra was tapping her nails against the opaque table and studying her mate with calculating eyes when chaos erupted within the room. Despite the fact that her father was barking orders and her mother looked panic-stricken, Bra could not take her eyes off of the man she had mated with and when she saw him take his fellow diplomat by the arm, she could not stop the rage that ate at her.

Her temper flickered dangerously and she allowed some of her power to leak into her eyes as one word bounced around in her head like ping pong balls, _**Mine.**_

However, that thought abruptly halted when Goten disappeared at a speed that could rival her father's, **What the–? There's no way that he's human. He's too fast.**

Bra stood up as soon as Goten's fellow diplomat returned to her seat, preparing to point out to her father that one of the diplomats had disappeared when a sudden case of dizziness attacked her, forcing her to sit back down and lean against the table for support as she attempted to catch her breath.

Once she did so, she blinked watery eyes and breathed deeply, **This feeling has to be connected to him.**

More awake now, she vividly recalled the way Goten's breath had ghosted along her collarbones, the way his lips had moved as his body pressed against hers. She could almost remember those strange mumblings he had spoken, but they echoed inside of her more than they had in her ears. Shivering at the memory of how hot he had been against her, the things he had done to her body, she reached for the drink in front of her and downed it. She only managed to make it halfway through the cup before she started to cough and gag as the taste of wine ran down the back of her throat, dazing her and warming her where she had been turning cold.

Deciding that there had to have been some connection between her mate and this weakness, Bra tapped her nails against the table as a sudden thought hit her, **I'll just go to mom's personal library. I'm sure she won't mind.**

Trembling with a weakness that was foreign to her, Bra ducked out of the banquet hall when she was sure that no one was looking and only by force of habit did she manage to make it to her mother's personal library. She knew the place like the back of her hand since she had spent most of her life researching certain texts that went hand-in-hand with her experiments.

For a moment, she lost herself in some of her older memories; since she had inherited her mother's magnificent mind, which went hand-in-hand with her father's arrogant attitude, she thought back to the time when she could perform basic surgery at the age of six and remembered when a young Saiyan boy had asked her if she had wanted to play doctor and the way she had taken his words quite literally. She wondered if he still had the scar where she had first started her incision and then found herself wondering perversely if he had the balls to pull down his pants in front of other girls now that he was old enough to mate with one.

**Probably not**, she thought with a quick shake of her head, both answering her own question and clearing the buzzing that seemed to be growing inside of her head.

Opening the door, she closed it slowly and winced when the big rusty hinges gave a loud groan, **I should get someone to oil them down later. Right now, I need to find out what's wrong with me.**

Blinking for a moment, Bra wondered why the place seemed darker than usual, but shook it off as she began to survey the books on mating, wanting to know the exact power her mate held over her; she was severely disappointed when she couldn't find anything on mating or its rituals.

Casting a long lingering glance at the books, Bra ran her slender digits over the worn spine coverings and shrieked with surprise when she made a move to pull her hand back and a book followed suit.

**What the–?** Making a move to drop the book back into its place on the bookshelf, Bra panicked when she realized that the book wouldn't leave her hand and was literally stuck.

The cursed mark on her neck tingled and her other arm began moving involuntarily; she was going to open the book, **No. No. No! This can't be happening. Is this some sort of sick joke?**

Before she knew it, the book opened and Bra's breath left her body as she found what she was looking for.

"The... Bonding Process?" She murmured aloud, her eyes taking in the bold lettering of the chapter she had opened up to and then the words that followed suit.

_The bonding between a male Saiyan and his mate can be one of the most remarkable occurrences to take place in the Saiyan world. No other creatures on the planet will ever have a similar encounter when they claim the one. The Bonding Process is not complicated to understand, but it may take some time to process._

_The bonding between two mates can only occur if both occupants have Saiyan blood in them, otherwise the actual Claiming (turn to chapter 5, _The Claiming_, for a full explanation on how this is carried out) that occurs between the two occupants will be null and void as no other creature on the planet has the teeth strong enough to break through a Saiyan's skin._

Bra paused then, thinking back to a passage she had read in her mother's diary, **Didn't mom say that dad helped her collect strange balls to turn her into a Saiyan or something along that line?**

Feeling sluggish, she added a casual shrug to her thoughts and went back to reading.

_When the Claiming has taken place, the male Saiyan will experience a deep commitment to his mate. He will never long for another woman, even if his mate meets with an unfortunate end. In cases such as these, the male Saiyan has been known to wallow and eventually die due to his grief. The bonding, from the second the male finds out who his mate is (turn to Chapter 3, _My Mate Is...,_ for a full explanation on how this is carried out) until his claiming of her will cause a few things to happen. _

_First, the male will experience extreme possessiveness and flights of violence. The best suggestion we have is for the mate to stay away from other members of the opposite sex as much as she can. Anything—from a look to an actual touch—can trigger the possessive side of the male Saiyan. For example, there was a male Saiyan who once tore the arm off of another visiting male from planet Wendigo for touching his mate. Physical contact is certainly not something in which a mate—male or female—should partake._

Bra looked up for a moment, nausea threatening to overwhelm her, **How is it that I can't touch another male, but he can go around with the stupid blonde _friend_ of his? I'm going to have to pay a visit to Toma soon to test out this... theory.**

Forcing the nausea down, she continued to read.

_Another part of this possessiveness is that the male will know without being in the same room when someone is touching his mate in a way that is inappropriate. Such a thing will cause one of two reactions given the severity of the touch. First, the male Saiyan will attempt to find his mate and rid her of the one touching her; in most cases, this is true. The second and much more serious reaction is should the mate be in danger of having another man in her bed, her mate will fall to the floor in agony. _

_As described by an ancient Saiyan, _"It wasn't exactly the pain that startled me as I've faced things far worse than this. It was the sensation that started like a deep tingle before it turned into an acute physical awareness of every tiny sensation, as if I had been exposed to the sun for far too long... as if someone was caressing me, but at the same time, made me feel raw and exposed, as if everything that touched me was covered in tiny needles."

_Our advice to the mates is to avoid physical contact with any male. We can't stress this fact enough._

Bra frowned and thought back on the passage she'd just read, **So, I can never hug anyone again? I wonder how true this is. I really am going to need a test subject. **

_The male Saiyan will also be able to control the dreams of his mate and vice versa. With enough concentration, no matter where their mate is, the male or female Saiyan can find their mate in their thoughts and cause them to dream what they wish._

_Often times, these dreams are an attempt to help bridge the gap. The female Saiyan often feels large amounts of hostility towards the male Saiyan before his claim. This is seen as a way to soften the lines and bridge gaps. Male Saiyans can attest that this has worked more often than not in enabling the male to initiate conversation with the mate without receiving anger._

Bra snorted with amusement,** In this case, it's the other way around. My mate believes that he's human.**

_The third part of the bonding process will be something both mates notice. The emotions of their counterpart will drift between them. Should one emotion—such as anger—be felt in a large abundance, the mate will feel it between their link. This gives both people a sense of completeness and togetherness. In some cases, it is stronger and the smallest hint of an emotion can be felt. This, however, is rare and has led the male Saiyan and his mate to use ancient magic to prevent this from happening._

_The final part of the Bonding Process is The Claiming. This is seen as the first encounter with actual intercourse. When a male Saiyan is finally ready to claim his mate, she has to give herself willingly to him. There are two parts to the claiming: Permission and Acceptance. Permission is the male asking his mate for her consent, which she must give. A male Saiyan can never take his mate without her approval. When Permission is granted, the male Saiyan will then bite the juncture of his mate's neck and the inside of his mate's right thigh, near her very sex. _

_Within hours, both of these marks will turn into small scars, which will warn anyone who should see fit to take the mate against her will that his life will be taken if he tries to do so. The mate must also do this as close to the scrotum as possible._

_Warning: if both places are not bitten at the same time, then both parties are in danger of dy—_

"Bra Briefs, just what do you think you are doing?"

Jumping, Bra whirled around and her blue eyes met eyes so much like her own that she swallowed when she realized that her mother did not look happy at all.

* * *


	16. Close For Comfort

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Dragon Ball Z or any of its characters.

--

_Definition__**(s);**_

1. Kami: God.

2. Sama: This word is used to call people who you respect highly, like emperors or gods.

3. Chan: This word is used when you are fond of somebody.

--

**Bold**—Thoughts

"Blah... Blah... Blah..."—Talking

* * *

**Chapter 15:** **Close For Comfort**

The embrace between Goten and Pan didn't last very long; Goten went rigid as another wave of agony washed over him and when Pan released him to see what was wrong with him, he curled into a ball, groaning in pain.

"Uncle Goten? What's wrong?" Pan asked, pressing a gentle hand against his shoulder blade.

He jerked away from her almost violently, mumbling a few incoherent words in the process, "Blu–gir–crazy–sai–princes–mating."

Feeling utterly helpless and not understanding what he was saying, Pan spoke with a patience she did not feel, "Uncle Goten, you're not making much sense. Please, I–I want to help."

Writhing with pain, Goten struggled into a sitting position.

"Listen Pancake, I have so many questions I want to ask, but it hurts to do anything, let alone speak," he paused then, confirming his words by breathing heavily with the effort of speaking. "This girl—I don't know her name, but she did something to me. She said she was the Princess and I thought that she was just being crazy, but it's true. She was in th–the banquet hall and while I was near her, I was okay. But, now that I'm not..."

"Oh, no... No, no, no, _no!_ _Bra!_ That's just gross. He's my uncle, for Kami's sake! I mean, I know that you've had a crush on him since you were, like, six, but it's just _wrong_," Pan grimaced, even as she began to babble. "And gross. My. Best. Friend. And. My. Uncle. Together. Tangled limbs and sweaty hair and–oh, that's just–_eww!_"

"I–I don–underst—I–I," Goten gasped out, or at least tried to when the pain waned a little again.

Pan blinked a little and blushed, "Oh, right. Sorry."

Uncomfortable with the topic of the conversation and not really understanding what was going on, he began to speak again, wincing as he did so, "Wh–what are you doing here, Pan and wh–what are you wearing?"

He meant to sound menacing as he questioned her on her choice of attire, but the pain soaring through his head left him feeling more than a little lightheaded, "I thought you were going to help the Satan City police solve those mur–murders. Ho–how did you even get here in the first place? The ship that Ma–Marron and I took was the only one leaving from Earth for the next several days. How did you manage to stow away on it and remain hidden that lon—?"

"Uncle Goten," Pan swiftly cut him off, needing him to rest for a bit and afraid that he would collapse at any given moment. "It's a _really_ long story and I _really_ want to tell you everything, but I can't right now. I—you—you're hurt and we need to get you out of here, so that I can talk to Bulma and find out why you're in so much pain."

While a part of her wanted to tell this man—one of the most trusted men in her life—everything that had befallen her and all that she had been through these past two days and then do nothing more than simply curl up in his arms and bask in the peaceful assurance of his presence, another part of her—a more suspicious part of her—kept insisting that it was a bad idea.

How did she know that_ this _Goten was the same as _her_ Goten? What if he couldn't be_ trusted_? The idea was completely foreign to her—after all, who _couldn't_ trust the members of the Son family?—but after all of the differences she had seen in this timeline, in the _people_ of this timeline, she just couldn't be sure. She would be taking a big risk to confide in Goten and that was a risk she wasn't willing to take just yet.

As though to confirm her fears, a wise, calculating expression glinted in the depths of Goten's black eyes, "You're right. Now is not the time for this."

Shakily rising to his feet, he gritted his teeth when various parts of his body protested being upright and allowed his niece to guide him out of the room, "I'm going to help you, Goten. I'll show you to my room—"

Missing his sharp look, she continued, "—but we have to suppress our energy. I know that it's going to be a little hard because of whatever you're going through, but I'll use my ki senses to make sure we stay out of trouble. Hopefully, we should be able to make it to my room without anyone noticing us."

If he weren't in so much pain, Goten would have cast Pan an amused glance and said, "_There are a lot of people looking for you, Pancake. I suppose this means that you're pretty popular around here, doesn't it?_"

Instead, he just nodded his head. Inwardly flustered by the way Goten was acting, Pan could not believe that her kind, overprotective uncle was letting her take the reins.

**Well, duh, Pan! This isn't the same Goten you know and plus, he's in pain. His senses aren't as sharp as they should be**, Shaking off her thoughts, Pan walked over to the door and cautiously poked her head out.

It wasn't really necessary, considering that she could just simply check for any nearby ki signatures with her senses, but she didn't want to take any chances because she knew that there was something seriously wrong with her uncle and he needed help.

"All right, the coast is clear. I promise that I'll do everything within my power to protect you, Goten," Pan insisted fiercely, sounding very much like her grandfather, Goku, at the moment.

Taking a deep breath, she emerged from the storage room, supporting her uncle's weight as she did so. When Goten lowered his ki signature to a nearly nonexistent level, Pan began to briskly walk down the hall, her senses on overdrive.

Because she was secretly terrified that she had severely injured Radditz when he had been doing nothing but his job, because Goten trusted her enough to guide him to safety, because of the way that he was going so limp in her arms just like Radditz had gone so limp against the wall, she decided, **This time around, I'm going to make things right.**

**x-X-x**

As soon as Bardock walked out of the banquet hall with his unconscious son in tow, Vegeta could not stop the intermingled feelings of rage, weariness and shame that ate at him. Closing his eyes for a moment, he struggled to control his emotions, even as his mind spoke otherwise.

While it was true that he liked violence, he did not like watching his people get hurt, especially when he had no idea what was the cause for the hurt. Even though there were many unanswered questions, Vegeta understood a few things; the girl that had knocked Radditz out recognized both of the Earth-born diplomats, she was very strong, if Bardock's broken scouter was anything to go by and she needed to be interrogated as a potential threat.

**And I'm supposed to be the one on trial**, he thought crudely. **Perhaps I can use this to my advantage. **

Deciding that anger would do nothing but make things worse, Vegeta started towards the two Earth-born diplomats with blank eyes and paused in mid-step when he saw that there was only one.

**Damn**, he inwardly cursed.

Signalling with his eyes to the two Saiyan elite guards stationed by the doorway to stand behind Marron should she try to escape, Vegeta closed in on her and gave her the most friendliest smile he could muster; his smile was all teeth.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Or should I say _not_ have here?" Vegeta purred, boxing her in.

The soft, husky timber of his voice along with the veiled amusement in his eyes made Marron tense, even as her mind scrambled for something to say, **Damn you, Goten, for leaving me alone to deal with this crazy psycho.**

"Vegeta-sama," she acknowledged through stiff lips. "What can I help you with?"

"Come now, Marron. We're not going to play that game now, are we?" He questioned, keeping a heavy-lidded gaze on Marron as he tilted his head to the side curiously.

"I don't know what game you're talking about, Vegeta-sama," Marron answered, her clear blue eyes staring back at him unblinkingly.

"I thought Chikyuu-jins were smarter than that—" he resisted the urge to grin when Marron bristled angrily. "—but I guess I'll just have to spell it out for you."

Leaning forward, he braced most of his weight on the table, dark eyes glittering menacingly and when he spoke, his voice was sultry and drumming with a heat that echoed in Marron's head, "I want to know where your fellow diplomat is, Marron and I want to know right _now_."

Panicking, Marron said the first thing that came to her mind, "He had to go to the bathroom."

A pregnant pause followed before Vegeta dubiously uttered, "I'm sorry. I must have misheard you. Did you just say that he had to go to the bathroom?"

Marron nodded and Vegeta gave her a look that clearly said _How stupid do you think I am?_, though he chose not to say it out loud; he _knew_ she was lying, _she_ knew he knew she was lying, they both knew that Goten's disappearance had nothing to do with plumbing and everything to do with the young Saiyan female who shared his surname.

**Perhaps they're siblings. If that's the case, then I will spare Goten and his family for living on Earth all these years if both he and Marron agree that my attack on Romula-sei was justified**, he smirked when he realized Bardock's influence on him.

Marron nodded carefully and the movement jerked Vegeta out of his thoughts.

"That's what Goten told me, Vegeta-sama," she murmured, but Vegeta still got the impression that she was distinctly annoyed, which only made the smirk on his face grow wider.

"I see," he nodded sagely.

He paused, allowing the silence to hang heavily in the air while he scrutinized Marron's face for any sign of weakness. She looked like she was trying her best not to squirm underneath the intensity of his gaze, which had the effect of making people feel as though they had been stripped bare. It made him feel pleasant; pleasant enough that he decided to let Marron off of the hook by looking away, pretending to glance cursorily around the near empty banquet hall. Besides, there was really only one woman's naked flesh that could hold his attention for longer than a moment and she... wasn't there.

He frowned, scanned the room again and cursed when he didn't see Bulma in the banquet hall at all, **Damn infuriating woman! She never listens to me. I'll just have to punish her... again.**

He grinned wickedly, then diverted his attention back to Marron and mused aloud, "Perhaps you do not yet realize the seriousness of the situation. There is a loose woman in my palace whose intentions are unknown. It is highly likely that she is the same woman who has incapacitated a third of my first class warriors and who happens to bear the same surname as your... companion."

His eyes briefly flickered with disdain, "She's clearly a Saiyan and while that might be good for me, it won't be for your fellow diplomat since his lineage has recently been brought into question. Don't you find it _odd_ that when this girl disappeared, your fellow diplomat disappeared as well to go to the _bathroom_?"

The tone of his voice left no doubt about what he thought of that excuse.

"Could this be a coincidence? Perhaps. But, do I believe in them? No, I don't," Casting Marron a sly glance, it was all he could do to keep any cheshire qualities out of his grin. "Frankly, Marron, I don't see how Earth can expect me to proceed with our diplomatic discussions when half of the team they sent has such a questionable character."

"What exactly are you insinuating, Vegeta-sama?" Marron's blue eyes flashed coldly as she abruptly stood up, knocking over her chair in the process.

"I thought I already made that clear," Vegeta mused wistfully. "Would you like me to repeat what I just said a little more slowly?"

Marron drew herself up to her full height and crossed her arms over her chest, "Goten has never been anything but an upstanding citizen on planet Earth. Just because he happens to bear a resemblance to some of _your_ people doesn't automatically make him a Saiyan! And I have no idea why you think _Pan_ is a Saiyan either. Except for being strong and having black hair, she doesn't share _any_ of your race's characteristics."

"Oh, but she does," Vegeta purred silkily, deciding to drive the blade deeper. "Or didn't you notice her tail?"

Marron gasped. She could not have been more shocked had he stabbed her in the heart. Unable to speak, she shook her head mutely, denying his words with everything inside her, but still, the words would not come. Suddenly, everything began to make sense even as Vegeta's smug smile turned into a frown of confusion; Goten's attempt to bite her neck on the transport ship, his large appetite, his unbelievable strength, the accusations Vegeta hurled at her...

**What a stupid girl you've been, Marron. Stupid, blind little girl. Look at what you've done now**, Marron felt her legs buckle underneath her.

The elite guard behind her looked startled, reaching out for her, "Miss!"

But, Marron was still too consumed by the damning words Vegeta had spoken to even notice that she was falling to the ground.

"Miss!"

Vegeta's face blurred into a black haze and at that moment, the world ceased to exist. When she came to, both Saiyan guards were hovering over her with dual expressions of concern in their eyes. Vegeta stood a few feet back, his dark eyes calculating, but otherwise showing no emotion. Marron felt sick and turned away from him.

"Are you okay, miss?" One of the guards asked, holding out a hand to help her up.

"I'm fine," she answered cautiously, accepting his offer to sit up. "Just a little lightheaded."

"Well, that's good," the guard smiled, relieved.

"You gave us quite a scare. Didn't she, Vegeta-sama?" The guard turned towards the King; Vegeta looked back vacantly.

"Yes," he said, tone utterly flat.

With a deep breath, Marron shakily stood up.

"Wait a minute," the guard protested, standing up beside her. "You shouldn't get up so quickly."

Marron forced a smile, "I'm fine, really. I–_oh_—"

She was forced to her knees at the sudden surge of power rushing soundlessly through the room and watched everyone else, Vegeta included, stagger to the ground.

Jolting upright as soon as the sudden surge of power disappeared, Vegeta quickly headed towards the direction of the ki pulse, **I will capture this girl myself. It seems that everyone around here is either too preoccupied or too incompetent to follow my orders.**

**x-X-x**

Bubbles floated throughout the blue-tinted fluid of the regeneration tank, teasing their way through the thick mass of hair that belonged to Bardock's eldest and only living son.

A long moment of silence passed before Bardock spoke, "How much time is it going to take before he's completely healed, Xer?"

The small Zandian medical technician who had been busily jotting down the statistics of Radditz's readouts paused.

Looking up at Bardock, he shrugged, his movements hesitant, "His skull was nearly cracked open, Bardock. There's also his broken nose to consider. I would give him two, maybe three hours, but I've never seen this much damage before from just one single hit. Right now, his head injury is the worst of the pain and while the machine is trying to ease it as much as possible, I still don't know if there is any brain damage. I'm sure you know that brain injuries take the longest to heal, what with your position and all, but right now, all of Radditz's senses are hypersensitive, so I can't say for sure how long he will take to heal."

The scarred Saiyan frowned with concern, "Is there going to be any permanent damage?"

Shaking his head, the doctor replied, "There shouldn't be. Radditz probably would have recovered on his own, though there's a chance he might have suffered amnesia if the injury had been left untreated. Your son's got a pretty hard head—no offense, of course."

Bardock smirked, "None taken. Thick skulls run in the family."

He allowed himself one last glance at Radditz, then gave the Zandian man a short nod.

Heading towards the door to the medical lab, he said, "I have a few things to take care of. I'll be back in a few hours. If he wakes up before I get here, _don't_ let him leave."

Not bothering to see if the shorter man acknowledged his words or not, the Saiyan warrior strode purposefully through the door and turned left. He had the better part of three hours to kill and he intended to put them to good use.

**x-X-x**

The trek to her room was one of the most stressful experiences Pan ever had; Goten's right leg refused to support his weight and buckled beneath him more than once, forcing him to rely solely on her strength. While they had managed to avoid running into anyone so far thanks to her extended ki senses, they still had to walk past countless rooms with people inside; people who sometimes drifted perilously close to their doors.

Often times, not knowing an alternate route to take, Pan was left with no choice but to take a deep breath and hurry past each door, hoping and praying that no one would come out at that crucial moment. While it had been very nerve wracking, her luck had held up.

**It only has to last a little while longer, then Goten will be safe and I can find Bulma**, Pan thought, glancing at her uncle; his strength was nearly gone and he looked so weak that every time his leg buckled underneath the pressure of his weight, he whimpered.

"We're almost there, Go-chan," Pan murmured absentmindedly, her eyes darting to her uncle and then towards the hallway.

"I don't think I can make it, Pancake," Goten muttered throatily, closing his eyes.

"You're the strongest person I know, Goten," Pan murmured truthfully, swallowing against the lump in her throat.

Tears burned her lids and she blinked rapidly to dispel the liquid threat. She couldn't afford to lose focus. If memory served her correctly, she was almost in the royal quarters. She just had to walk down the hall, turn left and then...

_Click._

"Oh, no," Pan quietly hissed, **I do not want a confrontation. It's the last thing I want right now. Not when Goten is so hurt that he needs medical attention.**

Goten's head jerked up at the sound of a door sliding open and when he attempted to open his eyes, he jerked unnaturally in Pan's arms and immediately shut them again, grunting. Colors assaulted him with a vibrancy he had never before imagined and his head hurt so badly that even looking at them was agony.

"Shh," Pan insisted, steadying him.

Bardock began to stride down the hall, taking the exact left turn that Pan had been planning on taking moments before. Not knowing what to do, Pan panicked. The corridor was narrow and there wasn't anywhere she could hide, but maybe if they held still and didn't make any sound, they might be saf—

"Bardock, wait! You forgot the readout on your son's condition!"

**Oh, for the love of—**

Time suddenly seemed to have stopped and Pan was unable to do anything but watch as Bardock turned around to address the alien doctor who had rushed out after him... and caught sight of them. For a moment, the slow crawl of time froze completely while Pan and Bardock stared at each other, even as Goten continually grew weaker in her arms; the small Zandian medical technician stood forgotten and confused with a sheet of paper clutched in one hand.

Then Bardock's eyes narrowed and the moment was broken.

"_You!_" He snarled, an expression of grim determination settling onto his features as he swiftly raised one hand into the air, already glowing with the intense blue energy of his ki.

Forcing himself to open his eyes, Goten struggled against the fierce surge of nausea, grimly forcing himself not to pass out as he stared at the would-be attacker threatening his niece.

"Make any sudden moves and I'll blast you," Bardock declared flatly, then fixed his attention soley Pan. "You in particular after what you did to my son, but since the King wants you in his custody, I'm just going to have to settle for taking you in."

The energy from his aura was racing into his open hand and collecting itself into a steadily growing ball of ki, the type that Goten hadn't felt since the last time he sparred with his father.

A shiver ran down his spine, **This guy means business and he has the power to back it up... Maybe I could...**

He quickly shook the thought off. While it would give him the power he would need to easily defeat Bardock, it was too dangerous to perform inside a building or near innocents, like the doctor... and Pan, although she seemed to have gained a lot of strength recently. She might be strong enough to withstand the initial effects of the strange technique only he, his brother and his father could perform, but he didn't want to risk it. He would have to come up with another plan.

Almost as if she could hear his thoughts, Pan glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and said, "Don't even think about it. You would destroy the palace."

Resisting the urge to gape at her, Goten eased out of Pan's embrace and stood directly between his niece and the man who could almost pass as his father's twin, "Get out of here, Pan."

"Now wait just a minute!" Pan protested furiously. "I will _not _leave you here in the condition you're in, Goten."

Goten heaved a sigh; there was the Pan he knew, loved and could get so frustrated with.

"Now's not the time for this, Pan," he hissed in a flash of annoyance, his pain momentarily forgotten. "I don't know if you've seen his energy level or if you've chosen to purposely ignore it, but there's no way either of us can fight this man and expect to win. Not even with that newfound strength of yours. Just do as I say and go!"

Apparently not satisfied with this response, Pan opened her mouth to further argue the point, "But, I'm not—"

"_Pan, go!_"Goten snapped.

He didn't dare take his eyes off of Bardock, who was watching the exchange through narrowed eyes, evidently waiting for them to make a move. He didn't know how he would measure up to this Saiyan in an all-out fight and he wasn't keen on finding out with Pan anywhere nearby, especially not in such a confined area.

Abruptly shifting tactics to something he felt was more likely to convince his niece to cooperate, he added a hint of pleading to his voice, still speaking softly, "Please, Pan. This isn't a situation you can resolve with your fists. I'm a diplomat, remember? I have to handle this a certain way or it will result in a huge mess for Earth."

With any luck, he could still get out of this without resorting to blows... but then, this was Vegeta-sei. The Saiyan words for 'argument' and 'brawl' were practically synonymous. Something about what he said seemed to surprise Pan. She blinked and gave him an odd look, almost as though she had never seen him before, then reluctantly nodded.

"All right," she grumbled.

Without another word, she spun around abruptly on her heels and stalked back down the hall the way they came from. In the opposite direction of her room. He opened his mouth to call her back, but the words never had a chance to leave his lips before Bardock's ki blast slammed into his chest.

**x-X-x**

Coupled with the fact that he was unprepared for the strength of Bardock's attack and the fact that he had pretty much lost all of his strength, Goten was knocked flat on his back and not even his father's last minute training could save him. The movement triggered a wave of agony which started in his abdomen and burned all the way to the tips of his fingers and toes.

Fighting his way through the agony, he forced himself to his feet and quickly dropped into a defensive stance. Bardock made no move to retaliate. Instead, he scrutinized Goten warily. Goten noticed that the small alien doctor had long since scuttled back into the medical lab, apparently knowing better than to stick around when two Saiyans (to his eyes, Goten looked to be Saiyan) were about to fight.

"That was a warning shot," Bardock finally spoke and when he did, his tone spoke of laughter. "You _don't _want to fight me, Goten. You will _lose_."

Struggling to stay upright, Goten began to pant out a response sluggishly when Pan suddenly seemed to teleport in front of him and the force of her power seemed to knock everyone in the hallway to their knees. Judging by the shocked look on Bardock's face, he was not expecting Pan to come back either and certainly not in that fashion.

"You're right," Pan spat out menacingly. "He doesn't want to fight you, but _I_ will and I can assure you, Bardock, that I _will_ win."

"Pan, I told you—" Goten started, but stopped when Pan's gaze landed on him.

He unconsciously shrank away from her, surprised, despite the fact that her mouth was set into a grim line. Her eyes were no longer dark. Instead, they were blue and they seemed to shimmer with something dark.

Despite the fact that her eyes seemed to glow, Goten saw the way her eyes softened considerably and when she spoke, her voice was soft and slightly coaxing, "I told you I would protect you, Go-chan. It's all right now. You're going to be okay."

Something like fire and something like energy raced through Goten's blood and he sighed in relief when he could think past his own heartbeat. Whatever energy he might have had to fight drained out of him almost visibly. He let his eyes flutter close, the warmth of Pan's words lulling him to sleep. Pan moved to ease him on the ground and then turned around to face Bardock.

"What are you?" He demanded harshly.

Pan frowned, "What do you mean, what am I? I think my tail speaks for itself, buddy, don't you?"

As if to prove her point, her tail wriggled around mockingly.

Bardock grinned triumphantly, "Aha! So, I was right. You _are_ a Saiyan as is Go—"

Pan rolled her eyes childishly and tilted her head the the side, her blue eyes calculating, "_Hello!_ Didn't we _already_ establish that? Are you stupid or something? I mean, Sereri said you were smart and all, but I don't see it."

Bardock spluttered indignantly; never before had a child made him so angry before. He resisted the urge to strangle her.

"You—_know_ my mate?" He choked out, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there.

"Okay, gramps, I'll explain it to you slowly. These clothes—Hey! Stop looking at me like that—they're your wife's! She _forced_ me into them. Secondly, didn't you bring me to your house after I fainted in nothing but a towel?" Pan blushed furiously at that. "And thirdly, why are you attacking my uncle? What did he do to you?"

She was scowling and despite that fact, Bardock wanted to grin; never before had someone other than his wife seem so charmingly irritating.

"He's your uncle?" He questioned, his dark eyes suddenly wary.

Pan nodded proudly, a smile breaking out onto her face, "Of course he is. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Your eyes—they're blue," Bardock breathed. "I've only seen one other person with eyes like that."

"_What?!_" Pan looked alarmed.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, she closed her eyes and focused on the level of her power. When she seemed sure that it was back to normal, she opened her eyes and Bardock could see that they were back to their usual dark color. Regretting what he was about to do, Bardock sighed deeply; sometimes, he really hated his job.

"Pan Son," he started, voice ringing with grim authority. "I hereby place you under arrest on the charge of being of Saiyan blood and living on a planet where Saiyan habitation is prohibited, endangering species purity and threatening the safety of the planet's weaker native people. You and your unconscious uncle will accompany me to have the evidence documented or I will subdue you."

His mouth twisted into a dark, humorless smirk, "Your choice."

Pan bit her bottom lip and seemed to hesitate for a moment, but when her eyes landed on her uncle, she nodded her head, "Okay."

Bardock stared. And stared. And stared some more, **Wow. That was easier than I thought it would be.**

Pan started towards Goten, but when Bardock growled warningly, she held her hands up in surrender, "Look, I know that you don't trust me because of your job and all and because of Radditz—I'm really sorry about that, by the way. I swear I didn't mean it—but my uncle's hurt and he's getting weaker by the minute. Just let me take him wherever he needs to go and then I'll go with you. No questions asked."

"That sounds fin—"

"_No_," a cold voice sounded, startling both Bardock and Pan into a defensive position.

Bardock dropped to his knees, even as Pan's mouth parted with shock.

"Trunks," she said and then inwardly cringed at how breathless she sounded; Bardock looked up sharply. "What are you doing here?"

Trunks ignored her questions and stared at Bardock coldly, "You will not take Pan Son into custody, Bardock. You may take her relative and run whatever tests to find out his condition, but this will not be reported to anyone."

"Bu-but, my Prince—" Bardock floundered helplessly. "The King—"

"—will not be hearing of this incident. As future King to the throne, you will heed my orders or you will find yourself at the bottom of the food chain so fast, your head will spin. Is that understood?" Trunks asked sharply, eyes narrowing dangerously.

Bardock had the decency to blush and gestured towards Goten's limp body, "Of course, my Prince. May I?"

Trunks nodded sharply and Bardock was out of there with Goten faster than anyone could see.

When Trunks turned to look at Pan, however, his demeanor softened considerably and he actually looked sheepish, "I, uh, sorry about that. I kind of overheard the conversation."

Pan shook her head wordlessly, resisting the urge to cry, "Don't be. Thank you, Trunks."

He looked puzzled for a moment, "For what?"

Pan smiled then, her eyes a little too bright, "For just being _you_."

In what seemed like a nanosecond, his puzzled look transformed into a seductive one and he hauled her into his arms and kissed her the way he wanted to; hungrily.

**x-X-x**

_Back on Chikyuu_

Bulma gently pulled at the lever, half-expecting the machine to explode again. After a week of testing her latest invention, she had gotten nothing but cuts and bruises—not to mention all of the equipment that had been destroyed in the process, but like a true scientist, she wasn't about to give up on it. She _needed_ this invention to work; simply because it had been two weeks since Pan's disappearance and no one—Dende included—knew where she was or if she was even safe.

Figuring that it would be easy enough to build a replica of the time machine Pan had taken, Bulma quickly discovered that all was not well when she learned that Pan had taken the blueprints for the machine as well. After what seemed like hundreds of failed experiments, she was on the verge of giving up, but then she thought of the haunted look in her son's eyes and ultimately decided to give it another try.

Inwardly grouching that if she ended up with one more bruise, she would scrap the machine and start all over again, Bulma began to test the machine. As soon as the lever clicked into its position, she began to type in some digits and then pressed the large, red button in the center of the control panel, instinctively bringing her arms up to her face to shield herself from any flying, broken machinery.

The colored lights on the machine flashed, drawing her attention after a few moments of silence. The lights continued to flash as she lowered her arms and cocked her head in amazement.

"It didn't blow up," she murmured aloud, her voice soft with wonder.

Stepping closer to the machine, Bulma ran a careful hand over the cold steel, **Is this actually going to work? **

Her eyes lit up with childlike excitement when she realized that the machine was growing warm underneath her fingers, even as her mind was telling her otherwise.

"It doesn't even feel like it's going to explode. Did I really get it to work?" As soon as the words slipped out of her mouth, an explosion occurred and Bulma found herself thrust back so fast, she landed on something sharp.

Reacting automatically, she let out a small gasp of pain, "I nee—Veg—"

Unable to complete her sentence, she let out a shaky breath even as the world faded in and out, black edging in at the corners of her vision. She felt her fingers fumbling along clumsily as she lost strength and air. She caught something in her hand and blinked, but her eyes wouldn't focus. She was sure someone was speaking as well, but her head was ringing.

"Vege—I di—" She attempted to speak once more, but couldn't quite manage the words as her head lolled to the side, her eyes slid shut and she felt nothing, saw nothing, _was _nothing.

* * *


End file.
